Year 1: The Legend Begins
by purtyinpink71121
Summary: Old name:Lily and James:the Whole Story, REPOSTED. James is starting his 1st year at Hogwarts, and so is his enemy, Lily. He has enough on his mind as it is, but throwing in an evil DADA teacher who tries to steal a family heirloom..thats just not fair!R
1. Lily's Birthday

**Year One: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter 1: Lily's Birthday**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter. Please don't sue me. That wouldn't be nice.

**A/N: **RE-POSTED AND TOTALLY REVISED! Okay so I had this story up before, it was my first story, but it kind of sucked because... well... we'll just say that I am a much better writer now than I was 2 years ago. So I took down the original story and I'm reposting this completely revised. The name of this story was originally **Lily and James: The Whole Story**, but instead of having one long seven year story I'm going to do it in 7 year-long instalments. Hence the title change. So please read this story and review. I love reviews! Please make my day . First 11 chapters are totally done so if I get reviews I'll update soon. Maybe wednesday/thursday?

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"James! I'm not going to tell you again to get ready! And you need to wear something nice! And comb your hair too!" Jane Potter yelled to her eldest son, James, who rolled his eyes in response behind the closed door of his room.

James Potter was sitting on his bed, staring at the wall, procrastinating as much as humanly possible. His neighbor, Lily Evans, was having her 11th birthday party today. Saying he would rather eat a pound of cockroach clusters that go was an understatement.

You see, he and Lily were not the closest of friends. In fact, they hated each other. They had gone to primary school together, and were sworn enemies. Lily hated the way James always teased her, and picked on younger kids. James hated how Lily and her friends always told on James and his buddies. Plus, they were 10, so the whole 'boys have cooties' thing still played a part in it. However, Lily and James' parents were friends, as were their sisters, so James was stuck going to the boring birthday party.

James glanced at the clock on his bedside table. It was 4:05. Lily's party started in 55 minutes. Sighing, James got up and headed towards the bathroom, figuring he had better get ready. If he didn't, his mom would be mad at him. Just then, Jack, his 9 year old brother, came bursting through his door, his face alight with happiness.

"James, Aunt Arabella is here!" exclaimed Jack, his light brown eyes sparkling excitedly, "She wants to see you." James was instantly cheered up. Aunt Arabella was James' favorite aunt. She was his mom's sister, meaning her last name was Figg. She was however, very different than everyone else in her family. All of the Potters and Figgs were wizards. Potter was a pureblood name that went back for generations. Figg was too, though it was not as well known. Arabella Figg, however, was different. She was a squib, meaning she didn't have magical powers, she wasn't a witch.

Being a squib tends to run in a family, so James had been worried that he might be a squib for some time. Not that anything was wrong with that, but James was always so interested with his older sister Brighid's studies. James' 11th birthday was yesterday, July 17th, which was when he received his letter of acceptance into Hogwarts. He was very happy about it.

"And how are my two favorite nephews?" Aunt Arabella asked, rushing forward and pulling James and Jack into a giant bearhug as soon as they stepped into the kitchen.

"Fine," both boys managed to choke out from their aunt's grip.

"Congratulations James! My little wizard," exclaimed Aunt Arabella, pulling James into another bone-breaking hug, only seconds after being liberated from the first.

"Thank you," James said, beaming.

"Are you coming to Lily's birthday party with us?" asked Jack, sitting down in a chair at the kitchen table.

"Of course. And I'm staying for James's party tomorrow. Is this the first year you two have had separate parties?" Aunt Arabella replied, sitting across from Jack, her question directed towards James.

"Yep," James answered, sitting between his aunt and brother. Lily's birthday was on July 22nd, five days after his (which meant he was older, something he constantly bragged about). They usually had their parties together, however, this year was different. This was the year James would be going to Hogwarts, so he and his parents thought it would be better if James had a separate, all wizard party. That way, James would know some people before he left for Hogwarts.

Lily and her family weren't invited, for as far as anyone knew, they were all muggles (there was some question about Lily being a witch because of when James' hair mysteriously turned purple after he poured paste all over Lily in the 3rd grade). There was a lot of explaining required for Mrs. Potter as to why she didn't invite her best friends to her son's birthday party, and she ended up saying that they were visiting a relative in Greece for his birthday. Mrs. Potter was going to charm the house so that it looked like nobody was home.

James, Jack and Aunt Arabella chatted for a few minutes, when suddenly, a high pitched squeal was heard from the doorway. James's 14 year old sister, Brighid, came dashing into the room and ran over to Aunt Arabella. Brighid had curly brown hair, and the same hazel eyes as James and their mother. Many people thought she looked like a miniature version of her mother, which was something she took great pride in.

"Aunt Arabella!" screamed Brighid, rushing over to hug her favorite aunt, "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine honey," replied Aunt Arabella, letting go of Brighid. Brighid sat down at the remaining seat at the table, but jumped up suddenly, sending their cat streaking out of the room.

"James!" Brighid yelled, "Lily's party starts in 10 minutes! And you aren't even dressed yet!"

"Oh, shoot..." James said, rushing from the kitchen. He took a quick shower, and threw on the first clothes he could find. He was completely unaware that down in the kitchen, his aunt and siblings were laughing their heads off. He was also completely unaware that Brighid had just gotten the ultimate revenge.

"Did you see his face?! He is so gullible! He didn't even bother to look at the clock before running upstairs," Brighid gasped between laughs, trying not to fall off of her chair, "I bet that is the last time you trick Brighid Potter into eating a cockroach cluster." In reality, it was only 4:20. Seeing as Lily's party didn't start until 5, there was no reason to rush

At that moment, James rushed into the kitchen, hopping on his right foot, while trying to get his sock onto his left foot.

"Come on, we have to go!" exclaimed James, sitting down for a split-second to pull his sock on all of the way, then bolting right back up. He couldn't bear to think what Lily would do to him if he was late for her party. Probably trip him so he fell face first into the cake or something of the sort.

"Jamsie, sit down, we have time," said Brighid, standing up and putting an arm around his shoulder. She looked like she was trying to hide a laugh.

"Yeah James, we've got about 30 minutes, take a seat," said Jack, pushing a chair towards James.

"30 minutes, are you insane?! Lily's party starts at 5:00, and right now it's... 4:28?" James stated, consulting the clock in the kitchen, "But... but you said it was 4:50 when I went upstairs to take my shower!" James was now thoroughly confused

"I lied dummy," Brighid said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What? Oh, come on, don't tell me this is about that tiny little piece of cockroach cluster I _accidentally_ slipped into your soup yesterday," said James, smiling sweetly at the memory.

"Precisely. Now, go get Mom, Aunt Arabella wants to ask her a few questions about your party tomorrow," said Brighid, standing up and leaving the room.

"Okay," said James, walking out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Jack sat there shaking his head and laughing silently for a few more minutes, amazed at how gullible his older brother was. His mom came downstairs a few minutes later, and Jack left to go upstairs to get ready.

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The Potters were the first people to arrive at Lily Evans' 11th birthday party. Since they lived down the street, they didn't really have much traveling to do. Petunia Evans, Lily's older sister was the one who answered the door. Petunia and Brighid were the best of friends. Even though Brighid went to Hogwarts during the school year, they kept in touch, and always instantly reconnected during the summer and holidays.

Petunia was one of the most popular girls in her school. Brighid had also been very popular when she went to muggle school with Petunia, before Hogwarts. However, Petunia was the only person she kept in touch with. She was also very glad that she had Petunia; all of her Hogwarts friends lived far away, and life was just too boring without a friend around.

"Petunia!" squealed Brighid, rushing forward and hugging her friend. She hadn't seen Petunia in a very long time. Sure, they had seen each other at the very beggining of the summer, but the Evans family had gone on vacation to France only a few days later, and didn't get back until July 14, 4 days prior to Lily's party.

"Brighid! It is so great to see you again!" screamed Petunia, hugging Brighid back. She let go of her and screamed up the stairs, "Mom, the Potters are here!" Mrs. Evans came hurrying into the entry hall to greet the Potters as Petunia and Brighid hurried into the party room. Mrs. Evans had straight, deep red hair down to her shoulders, and clear, light blue eyes.

"Jane! It's so lovely to see you again," said Becky Evans, taking the gifts Mrs. Potter was holding out, and setting them on the table by the door.

"And the same to you Becky," said Mrs. Potter, ushering her two sons inside to greet their neighbor.

"Oh, James, look how big you've gotten. The ladies will be all over you next year! And Jack look at you.

"You both look so much like your father did! I'm sure he would be very proud," said Mrs. Evans. James's smile dipped a little bit. His father died when he was very little, about a year and a half old. His mother didn't like to mention him much, since she got tears in her eyes whenever she did. All she said was that he was a great wizard and died unfairly. James took that to mean he was murdered, but he wasn't sure.

Mrs. Evans then said, "I'll go get Mark. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you." No sooner had the words left her mouth than Mark Evans came striding in from the kitchen. He was very stong and tall, at 6'1", a very large contrast to Mrs. Evans petite frame and height of 5'5". He had dirty blonde hair and sparkling green eyes which were identical to Lily's.

"Jane, glad you could make it. And Arabella, it has been a while since you've been in town, eh?" said Mr. Evans, grasping Aunt Arabella's hand and shaking it profusely.

"Thank you, it's nice to see you again Mark," said Aunt Arabella, faintly wondering when she would regain control of her arm. At that moment, Lily Evans walked into the entry hall. She had deep red hair, just like her mother's and startling green, almond shaped eyes. She had also inherited her mother's petite frame. She saw who it was, and tried to slip away quietly. However, she had no such luck.

"Lily, happy birthday sweetie," said Mrs. Potter upon spotting the child.

"Thank you Mrs. Potter," said Lily, pretending she didn't see the mischievous grin on James's face. Who knows what trouble he will cause her this year? Just then the door bell rang, signaling the arrival of more guests.

"I'll get it," said Mr. Evans. He turned around just short of the door and said, "You can go in you know. I daresay the party won't be much fun with you lot standing in the entrance hall."

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"Happy birthday dear Lily, happy birthday to you!" Lily smiled and blew out all of her candles, meaning her wish of discovering a new talent would come true. James watched Lily blow her candles out, wishing dearly she would not make it. James was sitting next to Liliy, and took the opportunity to talk to her as Mrs. Evans cut the cake and began to pass it around to the guests.

"What did you wish for Lily?" James asked quietly, so only she and her friend Denise could hear him.

"She's not going to tell you, then it wouldn't come true," said Denise matter-of-factly.

"Well, there are some things that wouldn't come true anyway... like if she wished she wasn't a red-headed freak, there isn't much a dumb wish would do," James wispered as he and Lily each receive large slices of chocolate cake.

Lily tried to stay calm, but couldn't. She was so tired of James always picking on her, calling her names like 'carrot-top' and 'lizard-eyes.'

James was still laughing at Lily, and Lily actually started to shake with rage. She kept imagining James wearing his slice of cake, but kept her hands firmly folded in her lap. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, James's slice of cake flew off of his plate and hit him straight in the face.

Lily was amazed. Her hands were still clasped in her lap, yep exactly what she had just been imagining had become a reality. Lily blinked a few times to make sure what she saw was real.

All of the guests had stopped talking and were staring at the end of the table, where James was wiping cake off of his glasses. Only the Potters seemed to know what was going on. They were all glancing at one another, knowing looks on their faces.

No one spoke for a few minutes, until James turned to Lily, his glasses back on his face after he had cleaned them. He looked like he was in shock.

"Lily, yo-you're a witch," said James quietly, This did not have nearly the impact he had been expecting. Instead of realization striking her face, rage took over once again. She stood up, slapped James hard across the face, and screamed at him.

"That is it James! I'm sick of you always being so mean to me!" and with that, she got up and stormed out of the dining room, followed closely by Denise.

Everybody soon got over James calling Lily a witch, since everyone just thought it was James being mean to Lily, but no one could get over the cake spontaneously hitting James. Brighid was enraged at James. She was sitting diagonal from James, and quickly got up from the table.

She walked over to James, yanked him out of his seat, and pulled him into the kitchen, the room closest to the dining room.

"James! How can one person cause so much damage with one sentence?" Brighid asked, exasperated.

"Sorry, I didn't really realize that would be such a big deal," said James.

"Think again..." muttered Brighid, "why don't you just go apologize and explain to Lily what happened. It sounds like Mom is sorting out the cake," (Mrs. Potter's voice floated in from the dining room, "His elbow hit the plate, really.")

"Me?! Apologize to Evans?! You have got to be kidding me! I didn't even do anything! She's the one who jumped to conclusions so quickly!" James said.

"No I am not kidding. Just go, I'll ask Aunt Arabella to explain this to Lily's parents," replied Brighid firmly.

"Fine," James sighed, seeing there was no way he could win this conversation. He got up and headed up to Lily's room, assuming that was where she would be. When he got there, he turned the knob, only to discover the door was locked. He knocked, and when no one answered, he began to bang on it very loudly, losing what little patience he had left.

"Lily, it's James, open up!" James screamed.

"Go away, James! I never want to see you again!" came Lily's muffled reply. It sounded as though she was crying.

"Lily, I came to apologize, and if you would open the stupid door, you would see that you are crying over absolutely nothing," James said. The door opened a crack, just enough to see a lock of red hair, and a teary, bloodshot green eye.

"Fine," said Lily. She opened the door the rest of the way, and James walked inside. He say down on her desk chair as she resumed her seat on the bed next to Denise.

"Uh, Denise, you kind of have to leave for this," said James cautiously.

"No I don't. Anything you can say to Lily you can say in front of me," Denise said loyally, "Besides, how secretive can an apology be?"

"Very, now get out," said James, then he had another idea, "Well, actually I guess you could stay, but afterward my mom would have to totally erase your memory, which could possibly put you in the hospital with brain damage, but if you really want to, then so be it."

"Alright, fine, I'll leave. Lily will fill me in later anyway," said Denise, closing the door behind her.

"And no eavesdropping!" shouted James. You could just hear a faint groan from the other side of the door, and footsteps falling away.

"Okay, so what is with this weirdo apology?" Lily asked, getting impatient.

"Well, remember when I called you a witch earlier? I didn't mean it as an insult. I meant literally, you are a witch. With magical powers and everything," said James. Lily still looked confused, and James had the feeling that this wouldn't be as easy as he had hoped.

"How gullible do you think I am?" she said, arching an eyebrow.

"Wow, this is not working very well. Maybe my mom should explain this, then, if you still don't believe it, she can show you a little magic," James said standing up. He was getting angry at her again. He tries to explain it, and she doesn't believe him. Typical. Lily followed him and found her parents talking to Mrs. Potter. All of the other guests had left, since it was after the party was supposed to have ended.

Soon all of the Evanses were informed and everyone was thrilled. That is, except for Petunia Evans, who stayed quiet the rest of the evening.

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There ya go, chapter one of this story is up! I hope you like it! Reviews would be greatly appreciated! If I get enough I'll update by Wednesday or Thursday!

Next Chapter: James's birthday party. James pulls a prank on Lily.

So go on, click that pretty little blueish-purple button!


	2. Pretty in Pink

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter two: Pretty in Pink**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own it, blah blah blah...

**A/N: **Hi, here is the next chapter! A little later than promised but hey, this is pretty fast for me... ahem. Yes. Anyway. Go on and read the story! Then REVIEW IT AT THE END!

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Lily had received quite a shock from the new James had told her, but was none the less pleased. Her parents were very proud as well, and the Potters explained all about Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, and every thing in between. Mrs. Potter had also gladly agreed that the Evans family could come with her when she and her children got their things from Diagon Alley.

The only person who didn't seem thrilled about Lily's newly discovered talent was Petunia. Whenever anyone mentioned it, her eyes got dark, and she went silent. Her attitude towards Brighid had also changed. Whenever she saw Brighid, she usually talked her head off, but the night before had been unusually quiet for Petunia.

Since Lily turned out to be a witch, she and her family were invited to James's birthday party. The Evans family understood why the Potters didn't tell them, and were all (except for Petunia) very excited.

Lily was looking forward to meeting some other kids who were going to Hogwarts. Lily was very outgoing and talkative when she was around people she knew, but was rather shy when meeting new people, or when she was around someone she didn't know very well. Lily's parents were intrigued with Lily's talent, and couldn't wait to talk to other adults who were wizards.

Petunia, however, was a different story entirely. Even though the Potters always threw good parties, and she would be able to hang out with Brighid a little more, she was almost dreading it. She personally was not psyched about spending an afternoon surrounded by a bunch of weirdos who could probably kill her in an instant by just saying a few funny words and pointing a stick of wood at her.

However, no matter how much she begged her parents, they were forcing her to go. It would surely be interesting.

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Jane Potter was rushing around, making a few last minute adjustments to the party. The guests were due to arrive soon, so she didn't have much time.

"Would Mrs. like Pinky to finish the dinner?" asked the Potter's house elf, Pinky.

"Oh, yes Pinky, thank you," replied Mrs. Potter as James walked into the kitchen.

"Mom, the Evanses are almost here. They are just walking past the McGreggor's house," said James, sitting on the table. That was his biggest habit.

"Okay, thank you James, and get your buns off the table," Mrs. Potter replied with a small smile. The doorbell then rang, and James's mind immediately set to work on how best to harass Lily. He would definitely pull a prank, and a magical one would be best now that she knew about his world.

As the door was opened, James saw a very unusual sight. Usually when the Evanses came over, Petunia was always the first one through the door, eager to see Brighid, and Lily was behind her parents, not wanting to see James. Today, however, Lily was at the front, and Petunia was in the back.

As Mrs. Potter was greeting the rest of her family, Lily walked inside, headed towards James.

"James, I just wanted to say I'm sorry I over-reacted yesterday," Lily muttered.

"Your mom made you do this," James said, leaning up against the wall.

"Duh," Lily replied in a bored voice as Brighid came into the room.

"Oh, hey Lily, is Petunia here?" Brighid asked.

"Yea, she is in the foyer with my parents," said Lily, pointing to where her sister stood. As Brighid greeted Petunia, other guests began to arrive, and soon the party was in full swing.

Lily and James both met new people at the party, but they, unfortunately, still remained enemies. Lily met a girl named Melanie Prewett. She was a pure blood whose parents worked with the Potters. James met a boy named Peter Pettigrew, a half-blood whose sister went to school with Brighid, and was also reunited with Frank Longbottom. James and Frank had been friends since they were babies, and even though Frank was a year older, they were still quite close.

As usual, James would not consider it a party without tormenting Lily a bit, so he and his friends devised a plan. The party was certainly not one to be forgotten.

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"Have you seen Lily anywhere?" James asked his new friend, Peter.

"Yeah, she is in the den with some girl," replied Peter. Frank Longbottom then walked up, looking quite excited, and holding a bag.

"James. I flooed home and got the stuff we need," he said.

"Perfect. This will teach Lily Evans a lesson. I can't wait to see her face," replied James.

"What exactly did Lily do that made her deserve to learn a lesson?" Peter asked.

"Um... I'm not sure. But this is a really good prank!" James said, not really answering his question, "Lily is in the den, let's go."

The three boys walked into the den and saw Lily sitting and talking to another girl, who had straight brown hair and clear blue eyes. James saw her deep tan skin, and it was a dead giveaway. This was Melanie Prewett, a girl he had knows since they were both very young. He could remember summers at the beach were he would burn to a crisp and she would just get tanner all day long. She and James had never really been too close growing up, but they weren't exactly enemies either. They casually walked up to Lily and Melanie, the bag of materials hidden behind Frank's back.

"Hey Lily, hey Melanie, what's up?" asked James, sitting in the chair next to Lily. Lily looked at him suspiciously.

"What do you want Potter?" Lily asked, noticing that Frank had his hands behind his back the whole time he walked around the couch and sat down.

"We just wanted to come and say hi, and I wanted to introduce you to my friends. You already know Frank, and this is Peter," James said calmly. Of course she knew Frank, he came to her and James's party every year, and every year he and James pulled a prank on her. However, it was a bit of a shock to find out he was a wizard too– he seemed so normal she never would have guessed.

"We know you are up to something," Melanie said calmly. Over the 9 years of knowing James, there was never a time when they saw each other that he didn't pull a prank on her.

"And we are going to find out what," Lily finished, noticing that as Frank sat down, he took his hands from behind his back, but it looked like he was sitting on something, "And, uh, Frank, what is that behind your back?" asked Lily.

"What? Oh, you mean this?" Frank said, pulling a bag from behind his back, "It was supposed to be a surprise, but I guess you can have it now. It's a birthday present for you, since I missed your party yesterday," said Frank, turning the bag upside down, and letting a pink and orange pen fall onto the table. The pen was very big, and it said happy birthday on the side.

"A present? How do I know this isn't a prank?" Lily asked, skeptical of the pen lying on the coffee table.

"It's a pen, what could it do? If we really wanted to pull a prank, don't you think we would think of something better than a pen?" James said, staring unconvincingly at the pen on the table.

"Oh I know it's a prank...I just don't know what it could do," Lily said, looking at the offensive writing utensil. She then bent over and picked it up, and started to examine it. Every one in the room started to laugh then- even Melanie couldn't hold back a giggle. Lily didn't know what they were laughing at, but knew it was because of the pen. As she turned her head to look at James, a lock of hair fell from behind her ear in front of her face. She almost screamed, for all of her beautiful auburn hair, was now pink!

"Potter! How could you do this! Look at my hair! Change it back right now!" Lily said as Melanie stopped laughing and stood up next to her friend.

"Sorry Lils, no can do," replied James, his usually grin reappearing on his face. Lily could tell he knew what to do, but James wouldn't say. Lily tried to calm down, tried to think about how to get revenge, and plans were forming in her head. She looked around and saw the bag the pen had been in lying on the floor.

That's when it hit her. Frank hadn't touched the pen yet! It had gone right from the bag to the table to her hands. As soon as the pen touched Lily, her hair had turned pink, right? So all she needed to do was make sure each of the boys touched the pen. They would certainly tell her how to reverse it if they were in the same situation. She looked down at the pen that was still in her hand, and she knew exactly how to do it.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry I lost my temper at you guys like that," said Lily, getting up and walking so that she was standing right behind all of them, "This really is a nice pen, why don't you try it out?" Lily then touched the pen to Frank's hand, and James's hand. However, before she could reach Peter, James grabbed her wrist, and tried to pry the pen from her hand. Lily tried to fight it, wanting to turn Peter's hair pink as well, and she knew that if James got the pen, he would turn Melanie's hair pink.

"Hey! Stop it, Potter," said Lily, trying to regain control of the pen, but James was stronger than she was. Lily looked around and saw Petunia enter the room. Petunia saw James and Lily fighting over the pen, and to Lily's horror, walked over to them.

"What are you guys fighting for? It's just a pen. And why are all of you wearing pink wigs? You know that is really tacky, right?" said Petunia, watching the battle with interest.

"Petunia, go away!" said Lily, still struggling against James. The last thing she needed was Petunia to touch the pen, and then tell on them for turning her hair pink.

"Just give me the pen you guys," said Petunia, reaching forward. Before Lily could tell her to stop, she reached forward and grabbed the pen out of both of their hands.

"Petunia, what did you do?," Lily screamed. She knew Petunia would be angry when she saw the fluff ball of pink on her head, and she would definitely want to get Lily and James in trouble for it. Lily's only hope was that James would tell all of them how to reverse the pink before Petunia noticed anything was wrong, or before she was able to reach an adult whom she could tattle to. "James, you have to reverse this right now," Lily said, continuing to scream at James.

"Lily, what is your problem, it is only a pen, jeez, the way you are acting, you would think my hair had turned pink," Lily shrugged and gave a little nervous laugh after Petunia said that.

"Well, you know, there is kind of a funny story about that," said Lily, "You'll laugh! Okay, no, maybe you won't laugh, but uh, you know the 'pink wig' I'm wearing, well, yeah, that pen is a magical prank James pulled on me and when I touched the pen, my hair turned pink and the same thing happened to you," Lily said, trying to keep it cool. Just as she predicted, Petunia looked like she was going to explode.

"What! James, change my hair back right now. There is no way I am going through my life with pink hair! Everyone was so excited about Lily being a witch, but I knew it was trouble! James, I said change it back!" Petunia continued screaming while James stood still, looking scared and not answering Petunia's demands to change her hair back. Once he found his voice again, he mumbled, "It won't come out. It will magically turn back at midnight, there is nothing you can do before that."

Both Petunia and Lily were aghast at that statement, seeing as Lily hadn't known that either. At the same time, both Lily and Petunia stormed out of the room, walking home to get hats, Melanie walking behind to comfort Lily.

Lily, James and Petunia were all still angry at each other by the end of the night, and hats seemed to be the new fad among the children. Lily had succeeded in convincing Petunia not to tell on James, but that didn't mean they weren't still angry.

Lily tried to forget about it however. She knew very well that it would do no good to start a new school year holding a grudge against James, and the new year was quickly approaching. Lily was excited about starting to learn magic, and when the Potter family took Lily and her parents to Diagon Alley, they were all fascinated. Before too long, August 31st came, and Lily was getting ready for the train ride to Hogwarts.

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So, there you go! Please REVIEW! PLEASE!

Next Chapter should be up soon. Next chapter: The train ride to Hogwarts... James meets Sirius and Remus, Lily meets her new friends... and there is an insane barking dog? How did that get in there? You'll find out next chapter, so review and it'll come faster!


	3. Dogs

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter Three: Dogs**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own... um... anything. At all. Except characters you don't recognize. But yep, that is pretty much it. Oh, and I don't own Dr. Doolittle. Because I'm not that cool .

**A/N: **Hey guys! I HAVE AN IDEA! LET'S PLAY A GAME! Okay, this game is called "Review at the End of this Chapter!" You wanna know how to play? REVIEW AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER! WEEEE! Sounds fun, huh? You wanna know how to win? Be the person with the longest review! Yay! So go on, read and then play the game! REVIEW!

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"Lily, you need to hurry if you don't want the Potters to leave without you," Mrs. Evans called up the stairs to her youngest daughter.

"I'm coming mom, I just have to make sure that I have everything," came Lily's reply. Petunia sat on the couch in the living room, reading her favorite book, Dr. Doolittle. The doorbell rang and Petunia stayed put as opposed to running to answer it like she usually did. She knew it would be Brighid coming to say goodbye, like she always did. This year, however, Petunia wasn't as upset about Brighid leaving as she usually was.

"Petunia, Brighid is here to say goodbye, and Lily you had better get down here if you don't want to end up walking to Hogwarts," Mrs. Evans said, going up the stairs to make sure her daughter would be ready in time.

Petunia slowly got up from the couch, and headed to the front door where Brighid stood, waiting patiently.

"Hi Petunia," said Brighid. She could tell that things were different between them, and wanted to be careful.

"Hello," said Petunia coldly. She noticed that Brighid had a wooden wand in her pocket, much like the one Lily had gotten a few weeks ago. She flinched at the sight of it. Not really knowing what to say next, she simply said, "I hope you have fun."

"Thanks," said Brighid, "I see your hair changed back. Look, im really sorry my brother did that to you," Brighid said, feeling guilty for her brother's actions. Petunia didn't know how to respond, so luckily for her, Lily came down the stairs, interrupting their awkward conversation.

"Okay, I'm ready to go," said Lily, holding one end of a heavy trunk. In her left pocket, sticking up just as Brighid's did, was a wand.

"Lily, before you go, your father, Petunia and I got you a little going away gift," said Mrs. Evans, coming down the stairs behind Lily, holding the other end of the trunk, "Your father has it in the kitchen."

"Really?" Thanks," said Lily, walking into the kitchen followed by her mom, Petunia and Brighid. She gasped at the sight of a beautiful snowy owl sitting on top of an owl cage. Her dad was standing next to the cage which was on the table.

"Oh she is beautiful, thank you!" Lily exclaimed, rushing forward and hugging her dad, "What is her name?"

"Well, what name do you like?" asked Mrs. Evans, also receiving a hug from Lily.

"Hmm...Belle," said Lily, sticking her arm out. The beautiful owl fluttered over to her and landed softly on her arm.

"Now you have absolutely no excuse not to write since you have an owl," said Mr. Evans. He then checked his watch and said, "You had better get going. We'll miss you sweetie, have fun," Lily put Belle into her cage and hugged her dad goodbye. As she went to hug her mom, she saw tears in her eyes.

"Be good now, we will see you at Christmas," said Mrs. Evans, hugging Lily tightly.

"Okay," she said, letting go of her mom. She then turned to Petunia, "Bye Tuny, I'll miss you," she gave her a brief hug, and picked up Belle's cage.

"Don't call me Tuny," Petunia said coldly, and Lily saddened. Tuny had always been her special nickname for older sister.

"Bye," said Lily, catching a last glance of her family as she and Brighid carried her trunk out of the door.

When they got to the Potter's house, there was a car parked in the driveway, all of the doors open and the trunk popped. She walked up and greeted Mrs. Potter, and was told to put her belongings in the trunk. After she put her things into the car, she crawled into the backseat only to discover that she would be sitting between James and Jack.

The ride to the station was not a very fun one. James kept complaining about how hot it was, and Lily was starting to get claustrophobic. Somehow, they all made it to the station, and when they had unloaded all of the luggage onto trolleys, Lily took out her ticket. It said the train was to leave from Platform 9 and 3/4. Lily didn't know of any such platform, and decided to ask James about it.

As they walked to platform, James explained all about how Platform 9 and 3/4 was a magical platform that was only accessible by a secret. He also went on to explain about how to get to the platform, all one had to do was walk straight at the wall dividing Platforms 9 and 10.

"How stupid do I look? Did you really think you could trick me into walking into a wall?" Lily said, raising an eyebrow at him. James shrugged.

"Well, although I do have to say you do look extraordinarily stupid, I'm not joking. You literally walk right into the wall," James replied, earning a punch on the arm from Lily for calling her stupid.

"Here we are," said Mrs. Potter, stopping in front of a wall– one that separated platforms 9 and 10, "Brighid can go first and show you how it is done." Mrs. Potter motioned for the kids to step back. Lily watched in amazement as Brighid turned her trolley to face the wall and just started walking. Instead of crashing headlong into the solid brick wall, she sort of dissolved right through it. In the blink of an eye, she was gone.

"I told you so," James whispered in her ear, and she hit him on the arm again.

"See, it is really quite simple. You and James can go next, and Jack and I will bring up the rear," Mrs. Potter told Lily. She pushed her trolley into position next to James, and started to walk towards the gateway. About half-way there, James started to run, and Lily followed suit, not wanting to be called a chicken. She closed her eyes, and quickened her pace, waiting for a crash, but when she opened them, she was looking up at a large scarlet steam engine. She stopped walking and looked around, seeing James waiting for his mom and brother.

After they all said their goodbyes to Mrs. Potter, Lily and James went one way and Brighid went off another way to find some of her 4th year friends. Lily was eager to find Melanie, so as soon as they got on the train, she started checking compartments. About halfway down the train, she found Melanie. She was sitting alone, reading a book when Lily walked into the compartment– James had entered one a while back that had Peter in it, who looked petrified. Melanie was obviously very glad to have some company, and soon the two were talking and laughing like old friends.

After a few minutes, they heard someone yelling outside their window. They looked out onto the platform, and saw a boy with black hair, who also looked to be going into first year, being yelled at by an older woman who was presumably his mother. They opened their window just in time to hear the boy say, "Mom, I have to go, the train is leaving soon." The boy then picked up his heavy trunk, but after only going a few steps, he dropped it onto his foot with a loud THUD.

"SHIT," the black-haired boy yelled, hopping around on his good foot. At that point, Lily and Melanie both started laughing.

"There is no way that could have been funnier," said Melanie as the boy's mom started screaming at him again for 'disrupting the peace.'

It turns out that Melanie had been wrong. The large black dog that had been sitting by the boy started running around in circles around the couple, barking its head off. Lily and Melanie only laughed harder as the woman started to scream, "Shut up you damn dog!" After about twenty seconds of screaming and barking, the boy pulled a whistle out of his pocket and blew three short, shrill blasts. The dog immediately stopped and walked over to the boy.

"That's a good boy Snuffles, good boy," he said, petting the dog, "Well, I'd love to stay and chat longer, but I have to go mom, see you later," And with that he picked up his trunk and walked onto the train.

"Oh my god, that was so funny," said Lily, still not believing that happened. She and Melanie returned to their seats. They talked and laughed about it for a few minutes before being interrupted by a knock on the door. They looked up to see none other than the dog boy standing at the door. Lily and Melanie fought back the urge to laugh as he asked, "Can I sit here?"

"Sure, go ahead," said Lily, biting her tongue to stop herself from laughing.

"Thanks," said the dog boy. He stored his trunk and sat down across from the girls.

"So, how is your foot?" asked Melanie. The boy looked confused, so Lily helped her friend along.

"Yea, I mean if I dropped a trunk on my foot, I would probably still be swearing," said Lily.

"Oh my god, you saw that?" asked the dog boy, grinning in an embarrassed way.

"Okay, I doubt there is a person on the whole train who didn't at least hear you," said Melanie, causing him to laugh, "So dog boy, what is your real name?" Melanie asked, leaning back in her seat, "I'm Melanie Prewett by the way."

"It's... Sirius. What's your name?" he asked, turning to Lily.

"Lily Evans. Don't you have a last name?" Lily responded.

"No," Sirius said, looking down.

"Oh come on, tell us what it is,"

Sirius hesitated, but told them anyway, "It's... Black," he said, "But believe me, I am nothing like my family," he said, hoping Melanie would realize that he didn't care about the purity of blood like his family did. Since his family knew the Prewetts, but hated them, he thought it was probably a small chance.

"Hey, it's cool, I don't judge people until I know them," said Melanie. Sirius smiled, but Lily was very confused. Melanie and Sirius explained all about how some wizards cared about having 'pure blood'. As the train started to move, however, they were once again interrupted by a knock on the door. There stood a boy and a girl, also going into 1st year.

"Hi, can we sit here?" asked the girl, who had straight blonde hair and blue-green eyes. She also had freckled splattered across her face. The boy had light brown hair, and identical eyes. He looked tired, like he was having a hard time just keeping his eyes open.

"Sure. I'm Lily Evans," said Lily, gesturing to the two empty seats.

"Hey. I'm Alice Leoni, and this is my cousin Remus Lupin," said the girl, sitting down next to Melanie, while Remus took a seat next to Sirius.

"Hey, aren't you that kid from the platform with the dog." asked Alice, looking at Sirius.

"The name is Sirius, and did everyone in the whole freaking station see that?" Sirius replied, slightly annoyed and exasperated.

"Probably," said Remus matter-of-factly.

"Great," Sirius mumbled. Alice then looked at Melanie, being the only one whose name she didn't know.

"Oh, yeah, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? I'm Melanie Prewett," Melanie said upon seeing Alice's gaze. The five of them talked for a while, and soon they were all great friends.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

When James got on the train, he started looking for Peter while Lily looked for Melanie. After a few minutes, he found him, sitting in an empty compartment, not doing anything other than sitting there looking scared..

"Hey Peter, what's up?" asked James, walking in and sitting down in the seat across from Peter.

"Hi, want to play exploding snap?" he asked, gesturing a pack of cards on the table. They played for a few minutes, but when the train started to move, a girl neither of them knew, but who seemed to be going into 1st year also, came bursting through their door. She pulled the shade on the door down, and crouched with her back against the door. Her head was below the window, so as to make sure she wasn't seen from outside the compartment. She had curly blonde hair, and brown eyes.

"You don't know me, you never saw me, I wasn't here," she said quietly. They looked at her strangely, but kept quiet as they heard footsteps running by. She peeked through the window, gave a sigh of relief, and sat down in a seat by the door, "Hi, yeah, sorry about that. I'm Marlene by the way. Marlene McKinnon. Can I sit here?" She said all of that very fast.

"Uh, yeah, sure," said James, after getting over the initial shock, "So, uh, what were you running from?" asked James, knowing she wouldn't have barged in here like that without a reason.

"Oh, it was this idiotic kid. I walked up and said hi, and he goes, 'Get away from me Mudblood.' Now, I don't exactly know what a mudblood is, but I could tell he was insulting me, so I said, 'Don't insult me just because you don't know how to bathe,' because his hair was really greasy and discusting, so then he starts chasing me and hexing me. What does mudblood mean by the way? I'm a muggle-born so I have a lot to learn," she said, still talking very fast.

"What was this kid's name?" asked James, ignoring her question completely.

"Oh, um, I dunno," she said vacantly, "but he was really pale with greasy black hair, and a really pointy nose." James listened with a look of concentration on his face.

"Snape. I'll be right back," said James. He got up and walked out of the compartment, leaving Peter and Marlene behind.

He searched the train for a few minutes before finding Snape. Of the few times he had met Snape, he knew that he did anything he wanted, and that usually included hexing people he didn't like. When he found Snape, he was talking to a boy with dark hair. The boy Snape was talking to looked aggravated, as if Snape was saying something he didn't like.

"Well, well, well, look who it is. Snape," said James, walking up to the two boys, interrupting their conversation.

"Go away Potter, I'm busy," said Snape nastily.

"Busy doing what? Getting your pathetic ass beaten up by him?" said James, jerking his head to the other boy. He gave a little laugh, and Snape was, obviously, getting mad.

"Go away Potter," Snape said again, reaching for his wand.

"Make me," said James defiantly, "I heard you were hexing someone because of purity of blood, and I just wanted to make a few things clear. If you go hexing anyone like that again, you'll wish you were never born," he said, meaning every word. Snape pulled he wand out of his pocket, and James reached for his, but it wasn't there. _Oh, crap._ He thought, _I left it back in the compartment with Peter. _He looked around and saw the other boy standing behind Snape, his wand out and pointed right at him. Their eyes met, and they both nodded, silently agreeing to double-team him.

Snape stepped forward, and James stuck out his leg to trip him. He stumbled, and before he knew it, the other boy sent a jelly- legs curse at him. Both boys laughed as Snape stumbled around the train, yelling that they would be sorry.

The two boys high-fived, and started walking back to James's compartment.

"Good job back there," said the boy who had cursed Snape. He had dark hair, and cool grey eyes, "What is your name anyway?"

"James Potter at your service," said James with a fake bow, "And yours?"

"Sirius," said the boy. Sirius dearly hoped that James wouldn't ask his surname, knowing that they Potters hated the Blacks.

"So what were you and Snape talking about when I got there?" asked James.

"He was...insulting my family," Sirius said slowly. In reality, he had been teasing Sirius about how his mother never wanted him to come back home. Sirius usually didn't let things like that bother him, but this time he knew it was probably true. His mother didn't like him very much.

When they got to James' compartment, Sirius was introduced to everyone, and they started a game of exploding snap. About half-way through the second game, Sirius remembered that Lily, Melanie, Alice, and Remus were still in the other compartment waiting for him. Since he was only originally going to the bathroom, he figured they were beginning to wonder.

"Hey guys, I have to go back to my compartment, everyone will be wondering where I am," said Sirius, standing up, "Why don't you all come with me?" They all agreed and stood up, heading for the door.

XoxoXOxoXOxoXO

Lily and her friends were having a lot of fun, but after about 10 minutes, they began to wonder where Sirius went. He had left to go the bathroom and never came back.

"Maybe he pulled an Elvis and died on the toilet..." Lily said, causing the Alice to laugh, Remus to look up from his book confusedly, and Melanie to ask what an Elvis was. Right after she had said that, the compartment door open. In walked Sirius +3.

"Hey Sirius, what's u...," Lily started to say, but froze at the sight of the other kids walking through the door. James Potter was standing in the doorway, smirking at Lily. She turned the other way, just trying to avoid some sort of fight.

"Guys, these are my new friends, James, Peter, and Marlene," said Sirius, pointing at each of the people as he said their names. Lily sighed when he said James's name. They four newcomers sat down and Peter took out the deck of cards again. In the middle of the second game, James had a sudden thought. He turned his attention to Sirius

"Hey, was it you who was on the platform with that dog?" James asked.

Sirius groaned and banged his head against the wall.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Okay, there you go! Don't forget to play the review game! I know you want to win for longest review! I'll give you a cooookkkiiieeee!!!!!


	4. The Sorting

**Year 1: The Legend Begins**

**Chapter four: The Sorting**

**Disclaimer: **Anything you recognize is not mine.

**A/N: **Well, since I got a TON of reviews last chapter I decided to update this today! Woot! Probably one of the quickest updates I have ever done, lol. And nice long chapter too! So yeah. Go on and read it, and REVIEW after! Oh, and btw... the winner of the review game was... ROASTED SNOW! With rain alchemist in a close second. Woot! So go read and REVIEW this chapter too!! WOO HOO!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Firs' years over here! Firs' years! This way," called a giant figure, gesturing to Lily and her friends. They had just arrived at the platform in Hogsmeade, and they all stared up in amazement at the large man. He started to speak again, and they were all snapped out of their trance.

"Come on, firs' years! Ev'ryone here? Good, let's get ter the boats then," he said, gesturing over his shoulder to a lake, and starting to walk in that direction, "Oh, and by the way, y'all can call me Hargird," the giant man called over his shoulder as they approached the lake.

"What are we doing? Are we boating across the lake?" Lily wispered to Melanie.

"It sure looks like it," said Marlene, coming up and walking with them.

"Great," Lily said quietly. She didn't like water very much, and could swim at all,

"Com' on now ev'ryone! Four ter a boat. Hurry now," Hagrid shouted, heading to the boat at the front of the fleet.

"Let's go find a boat," said Marlene, motioning to a boat. As they walked up to it, James and Sirius came running up and say down in the boat so that there was only room for two of the three girls.

"Move Potter," Lily said, looking at the two boys. James was grinning mischviously.

"No, that's okay, im quite comfortable where I am. Thank you for asking though," James said smoothly, leaning back.

"It's okay Lily. I'll go over there with Alice," said Marlene, walking over to a boat where Alice was talking to Remus and Peter.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" said Sirius, motioning to the seats across from him and James. Lily sighed and got it, seeing that there was no room anywhere else.

As the boat started to move, Lily looked up and saw the amazing sight of Hogwarts out in the distance. She stared at it's beauty for a few minutes, then looked down at the water. She bent over the side of the boat, and looked at her reflection. She heard sniggers behind her, and the boat began to wobble.

"Stop it Potter!" Lily snapped, whipping her head around to face the grinning boy.

"Make me!" James said childishly and he and Sirius began to rock the boat more. Lily held on to the side tightly, afraid she would fall in. The boat gave an especially large lurch and before she knew what was happening, Lily was tumbling face first into the water.

As she flipped out of the boat, she felt someone grab at her, but they missed, and she was devoured by the icy coldness that was the lake. She struggled for air, but couldn't find the surface, couldn't see a thing. She couldn't swim, she knew she would drown. All she could think about was air, as water continued to fill her lungs.

She struggled until she found the surface, but was immediately re-submerged. She was feeling extremely lightheaded when a large hand reached into the water and pulled her up and into the boat. She coughed and gasped for breath, and once she had calmed down, she looked up at her rescuer. It was Hagrid. She looked around and saw Melanie, James, and Sirius. They all were white in the face. Especially James.

Lily was suddenly flooded with rage, but calmed herself. James knew that she couldn't swim, and, even though he hated her, he wouldn't try to kill her– that was taking it to a bit of an extreme. She suddenly became aware that everyone was looking at her, as she was still couching the water from her lungs, but she had little time to be embarrassed. The boats soon reached the shore, and they were all ushered off the boats.

"You okay?" came the voice of Hagrid from behind her.

"Yeah, I will be. Thanks for saving me," Lily said, smiling kindly. She took a closer look at the man in front of her. Although he was very large, he looked to be no older than 30 or 35. His black hair was just barely speckled with gray, and he had a beard covering his smiling face.

"Oh, it was really no problem. Why don' cha go catch up with yer friends there?" said Hagrid, and Lily shot him one last smile before running up to the rest of the first years.

Once Lily had caught up, Melanie and Marlene rushed over to her, hugging her, and making sure she was alright.

"James and Sirius are really sorry. They were just fooling around, they didn't know you would fall in," said Melanie.

"Uh huh, sure," Lily said, trying not to get mad. She didn't want to be thought of as the girl with a horrible temper on her first day at this new school.

"Lily!" said Alice, as she, Remus and Peter came up to her, "Are you alright?" she asked, hugging her tightly.

"Yeah," Lily lied. In reality, she was terrified, not to mention cold and wet. She was visibly shivering, even though Hagrid had given her his moleskin overcoat once he pulled her up onto his boat.

"James and Sirius said they were really sorry," said Remus quietly. As he said that, none other than James and Sirius walked up. Sirius looked really sorry, and James looked like he had been taken by surprise.

"Are you alright Lily?" Sirius asked, well, seriously, "I'm really sorry. I didn't know you were leaning over the side when we were rocking it, and I had no idea you would fall in," Lily nodded when he was done speaking, signaling that she accepted his apology, even though she wasn't even leaning over the side when she had fallen over.

James then opened his mouth to speak as well, but before he had a chance, a man, who was standing by the door, began to speak.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Horace Slughorn, potions master and deputy headmaster," the man said. He was rather short and fat, with ginger-blonde hair, and a big bushy mustache of the same color. He then went on to explain about the four houses, and carefully stated that he was the head of Slytherin. After he was done talking, he lead them all inside, up many flights of stairs, and stopped them in front of a large set of double doors.

"You all must wait here until they are ready for you inside, at which point you will be sorted into your houses. Now, if you will excuse me..." and with that he disappeared through the double doors.

"Which house do you think you will be in?" Lily asked her group of friends.

"Gryffindor. At least, I hope so," Melanie answered.

"Probably Gryffindor. Everyone in my family has been in Gryffindor," replied James.

"Probably Ravenclaw," Remus said, and Alice agreed with him that she would most likely be in Ravenclaw as well, although Gryffindor would be pretty good too. However, before anyone else could give and answer, Professor Slughorn was back.

"Everything is ready. Please follow me into the Great Hall. Oh, and uh, look up," he added with a slight chuckle. As they headed into the hall, looking up, they were amazed to find that there was no ceiling. At least, it looked that way. Remus however, told them all that it was bewitched to look like the sky outside, and he had read about it in Hogwarts: A History.

They walked between two long tables full of kids and came to a stop in front of another long table. This one appeared to be full of staff members. However, before Lily got a decent look around, Professor Slughorn was talking again.

"Now, when I call your name, you will come up and sit on the stool (he gestured to a three-legged stool behind him) and I will put the Sorting Hat on your head. You will then be sorted into your appropriate house. So, let us begin. Allemone, Kady," A tall, skinny girl with dark brown hair walked slowly up to the stool, sat down, and let Professor Slughorn drop the hat over her head.

It took a while, and after about a minute, Melanie began to look around among the kids, and smile. She poked Lily and wispered, "Come here, I want you to meet someone." Lily and Melanie slowly made their way over to two girls standing right at the front of the clump of kids.

One of the girls had bright red hair and light brown eyes, while the other girl had black hair down to her waist, and dark blue eyes. Both girls were fairly short, and when Melanie tapped the red-head, she gave a quiet squeal of delight and hugged Melanie.

"Oh my gosh, Melanie! I didn't know you were going to start at Hogwarts this year! This is Emmeline Vance by the way," said the girl, smiling warmly.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Melanie. Lily, this is Michelle Weasley, her older brother Arthur is marrying my cousin. And this is Lily," said Melanie. She opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a loud cry of, "HUFFLEPUFF," The four girls looked up in time to see Kady Allemone walking over to the Hufflepuff table, who were all cheering. _That took quite a long time, _Lily thought, as the cheers died down, _I really hope it doesn't take that long for me. Or for anyone else because I'm starting to get hungry_. Professor Slughorn then called the next name on the list, Bellatrix Black. Sirius looked away, and stayed quiet while he watched his cousin walk up to the stool, slowly and confidently.

The second the hat touched Bellatrix's head, it shouted, "SLYTHERIN," and she happily walked over to the Slytherin table, her long, black hair bouncing behind her. James rolled his eyes and made a noise of disgust.

"Black, Sirius," called Professor Slughorn, and James's eyes widened it surprise. He had never found out Sirius's surname, but never in a million years would he have guessed that it was Black.

"Black?" James asked, looking at the boy beside him. Sirius's facial expression was a mixture of guilt and nerves.

Sirius hesitantly walked forward, and James stared after him, not really sure what to think about his new friend._ He's probably going to be in stupid Slytherin. There goes a friendship right out the door._

Meanwhile, Sirius was walking up to the stool, praying that he wouldn't be put in Slytherin. _Well, here it goes, _he thought.

He sat down on the stool, and, like his cousin, the hat shouted a house after only a few seconds of being on his head. However, the house was not Slytherin, but Gryffindor. A stunned silence filled the hall for a few seconds, but then the Gryffindor table erupted in cheers, and Sirius walked over to the table. Lily smiled, knowing that he would be very happy, and James smiled too, glad to see that he hadn't been wrong about his newest friend.

Lily watched as two Slytherins were sorted, and the next person called was Diggory, Amos. Lily's apprehension began growing, as suspected she would be soon. After only about 15 seconds, Amos Diggory was sorted into Hufflepuff, and Lily heard her name called above the cheering of the Hufflepuffs.

"Evans, Lily," Melanie wispered her good luck as she stepped forward and sat on the stool. Professor Slughorn dropped the hat on her head, covering her eyes, so all she could see was the inside of the hat.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a voice wispered in her ear. _Is the hat talking to me?_ Lily wondered, figuring it was perfectly possible. They were, after all, in a magic school.

"Of course I am talking to you, who else would I be talking to, myself? Now, where should I put you? You are extremely clever, as well as quite brave, and loyal. Hmm... determined, your mind is set on your goals... Slytherin would suit you well, but no, perhaps that isn't the best choice. But what to make of the others?" the hat wispered to her again.

_Gryffindor, please,_ Lily thought at the very back of her mind.

"Hmm...yes, Gryffindor would be a good choice for you. You bravery exceeds all of your other traits. Yes, great things your future will behold. Quite great," the hat said, and before Lily had time to ask what the great things were, the hat shouted Gryffindor for the whole hall to hear. The Gryffindor table burst into cheers as Lily walked over and took a seat next to Sirius.

"Congratulations," Sirius said as Lily took her seat.

"Thanks, you too," said Lily. The two turned their attention back to the hall as identical twins Matty and Mike Gilkens were both sorted into Ravenclaw. Lily looked down at the table and saw large gold serving plates all over the table. Lily again realized how hungry she was. She stared at her plate longingly for quite some time.

"HUFFLEPUFF," came a sudden cry from the sorting hat. Lily looked up and saw a boy with tan skin and black hair walk over to the Hufflepuff table. There seemed to be less people standing at the front of the hall, and she suspected that she had been lost in thought for quite some time.

"LaFleur, Rose," called Professor Slughorn, and a girl with straight blonde hair walked up to the stool. Lily started to giggle, seeing as she had taken French at her muggle school.

"What's so funny?" Sirius asked.

"In French, her name literally means Rose the flower," Lily said as Rose was sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Leoni, Alice," Professor Slughorn said, and Alice walked up to the stool.

"Gryffindor," yelled the hat after only a few seconds, and Lily cheered loudly with the rest of the table as Alice came and sat next to Lily. The two of them looked up as Remus was called. He walked up and Lily realized that he looked extremely pale and shaky.

"He doesn't look too good. He looks really tired," Lily wispered to Alice as the hat contemplated the house in which to place Remus.

"Yeah, well, he was sick a few days ago," Alice said quickly. Lily nodded in understanding as the Sorting hat made up its mind.

"Gryffindor," yelled the hat and Remus made his way over to the Gryffindor table. He sat down across from Sirius and began to talk to him. They were soon interrupted by Professor Slughorn, who called Marlene up next to be sorted.

She walked up to the stool and sat down, grinning excitedly. As the hat was dropped over her head, she began to swing her legs that were inches from the floor. About a minute later the hat came to a decision.

"Gryffindor," Marlene walked over to the table as they all cheered.

"Dang, that is one psycho hat. Did it talk to you guys?" she asked, sitting down next to Remus.

"Yeah, it told me I would do 'great things in my future', but wouldn't tell me what they were." Lily said as the next person, Vicky Nestle was put in Ravenclaw. The next person called was Peter Pettigrew. He sat down on the stool, and the hat was put on his head.

"That is one weird kid. During the ride over here in the boats, he was singing songs from the Phantom of the Opera, and we couldn't get him to stop," Marlene said, to the agreement of Alice and Remus. He took a very long time, much longer than Kady Allemone. Finally, the hat screamed Gryffindor, and Marlene rolled her eyes as he sat down next to Alice.

"Potter, James," Professor Slughorn said, and James walked forward. Lily was praying that he did not her put into Gryffindor, but she had no suck luck, for about ten seconds later, the hat yelled Gryffindor, and James happily came over and sat down next to Marlene.

The next person to go up to be sorted was Melanie, and Lily watched curiously, hoping she, too, would be in Gryffindor. This time, she did get her wish. The Sorting hat screamed Gryffindor only seconds after being placed on her head.

"Congratulations," Lily said to her as she sat down next to James. Melanie was about to answer when Professor Slughorn called out the next name.

"Snape, Severus," When this name was called, Sirius turned around and looked at him menacingly. Marlene looked too, and received a great shock.

"Hey, that's the kid that was hexing me on the train," Marlene said, looking at him as he walked over to the stool. He sat down and, just like what happened with Bellatrix Black, the had shouted Slytherin the second it touched his head, "Dirty idiot," Sirius mumbled as he smugly walked over to the Slytherin Table, his greasy hair falling around his face.

"Thank God it's almost done, I'm so hungry," Remus said, staring longingly at his empty plate. Lily looked up and saw that he was right. There were only three people left waiting, and a fourth being sorted right then. She was soon sorted into Hufflepuff, and Emmeline Vance, the person Lily had met earlier that night was called up. She was sorted into Ravenclaw quite quickly.

"Look," Melanie said to Lily, leaning across James, "Michelle is next," and, as Melanie had said, Michele Weasley was indeed walking up to the stool, "I hope she gets in Gryffindor." However, Michelle had been put in Ravenclaw, and after the last person, Patricia Zabini, had been sorted into Slytherin, a tall man at the center of the staff table stood up. He had long, auburn-white hair, and a long auburn-white beard.

"Welcome to Hogwarts to all of our new students. And welcome back to all of you old ones. I am Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster. I would like to say a few words, but I see you are all quite hungry, so I will save them for after the feast. Dig in!" And with that, all of the serving plates were filled with food, and the pitchers were filled with drinks.

Lily looked around in awe, deciding what to eat first. All of her favorite foods were there, but before she could make a decision, she heard a nasty noise next to her. She looked around and saw Sirius shoveling food into his mouth at top sped. He barely paused to take a breath. Because of this, he was soon choking, and Lily had to thump him on the back to help clear his windpipe.

"Thanks a lot Lily," Sirius said brightly before returning to his food. Lily just rolled her eyes and chuckled.

"Boys are hopeless," she said. Alice quickly agreed with her. James, who was sitting across from Alice, was also shoveling food in his mouth, even faster than Sirius. All of the girls started laughing as Sirius, James, and Remus held a contest to see who could eat a dozen rolls the fastest, which Remus surprisingly won.

Once everyone was done eating, and the last of the desserts had magically disappeared, Dumbledore stood up once again.

"Now that we are all well fed, I would like to make a few announcements. The forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students, no exceptions. Also, I would like to introduce you to our new caretaker, Mr. Argus Filch. And now, I am sure you are all very tired, so, goodnight," As Dumbledore finished talking, there was a dull scrape of chairs as everyone stood up to go to bed.

All of the first years followed a prefect named Judy up to the common room, and were told that the password was _Pistons_, and they were showed where their dormitories were. The four girls walked in to find that their belongings were already in front of their beds.

The girls all said their goodnights and got into bed. Lily lay awake, perfectly happy, not even believing that just hours ago, she had almost drown in the lake.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Okay, there you go. REIVEW! And about the password... What can I say? I'm a metro Detroit girl born and raised, the Pistons are my homies, lol. And if you don't know who the Pistons are... well that is just SAD! (Basketball team, lol)

So yes. Tell me if you liked it! REIVEW! Hopefully the next chapter should be up on Saturday


	5. Fighting and Teacher Fetishes

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter five: Fights and Teacher Fetishes**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything. At all. Sad eh?

**A/N: **Okay, so here is the next chapter! I hope you like it, and please review at the end!! And thanks to all my reviewers so far. You guys rock!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"James! Wake up! Come on, you big oaf," Sirius's said, his voice ringing through the dorm like a bell. Er... perhaps a broken bell. James, however, just rolled over and fell back to sleep with a loud snore.

"This is ridiculous," Remus said, and went into the bathroom, coming out moments later with a large bucket of water.

"Oh, I love the way your mind works," Sirius said, and also went to go get a bucket of water.

"Okay, on three, we throw. One, two, three," and with Remus's cue, both boys tossed the water on James, who sat up suddenly, sputtering and wiping water from his eyes.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" he demanded, shoving his glasses on his face.

"To wake you up duh," Sirius said matter-of-factly, "Plus, we thought we would save you the horrible inconvenience of showering," Sirius added. James stood up, scowling and dripping wet, and began to change.

Once James was dressed and they had woken up Peter (By the non-wet method of screaming in his ears), the four boys headed down to breakfast.

They found seats at the Gryffindor table, and James and Sirius instantly began to shovel food into their mouths again.

"Lily and Alice are right, you two are disgusting," Remus said as James shoved a whole pancake in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Peter quickly agreed with him.

"Look who's talking, Mr. I-can-eat-twelve-rolls-in-a-minute-and-23-seconds," Sirius said, chuckling.

"Just because I _can_ eat fast, doesn't mean I don't posses the manners to control myself," Remus said with a smirk. James opened his mouth to retort, but just shrugged and continued to eat, causing Remus to laugh harder.

About halfway through breakfast, a professor came around and handed them schedules. She had dark brown hair that was pulled back into a bun, and brown eyes with square spectacles over them. She told them that her name was Professor McGonnagal, and that she was the transfiguration teacher, and head of Gryffindor.

"What class do we have first?" Peter asked Sirius, who had all four of their schedules in his hands.

"Ugh, double potions with the Slytherins," Sirius said with a groan. After they had all finished eating (ending with Remus, who refused to speed up in order to remain polite), they headed down to the potions classroom in the dungeons.

They were about 10 minutes early, so they were the only ones there.

"You know, this place is way too calm. Have you guys ever pulled a prank?" James asked. Peter nodded, as he had helped James turn Lily's hair pink, and Remus shook his head. Sirius, however, began nodding his head enthusiastically, his eyes brightening.

"Of course! At home, the only way I could survive was to pull pranks on my idiotic parents and brother," Sirius said, causing James to grin. He had known from the start that he and Sirius would get along very well, and it was definitely confirmed when he had gone against his parents and gotten into Gryffindor. And this was just the cherry on top of the sundae.

"Cool," James said, "I definitely think we should pull one soon. Oh, and since it is Remus's first prank it will have to be really good," James said with a chuckle. However, before they could plan anything, two girls walked up, whispering to each other. One of them had heavily lidded eyes, and James recognized her as Bella Black. She had been sorted into Slytherin right before Sirius had become a Gryffindor, and because of the last names he could only assume they were in some way related. The other girl had dark skin and hair, and James didn't know who she was.

"Well, look who it is. The perfect Gryffindors," Sirius's cousin, Bella, said, laughing cruelly. Sirius's facial expression contorted into one of anger, and he started to grit his teeth.

"Hello cousin dearest," Sirius said grimicingly, and James was shocked to hear the word cousin leave his mouth. Of course he knew anyone with the last name of Black would be related, but certainly hadn't expected _cousins_, "I see you already found a skanky Slytherin to be your friend. Or wait, I take that back. She isn't your friend because friend would imply that you don't have to pay her to be around you. How much does she give you Patricia? 40 galleons a day? 50?" Sirius continued, and James chuckled a little bit.

"Oh, brilliant comeback. Real witty," Bella snorted, "At least I have parents that care about me, and would actually mind if I got eaten by the Giant Squid," Bella grinned as soon as the words left her mouth. She knew she had hit a nerve. And, sure enough, Sirius had launched himself at her as soon as she finished the statement. James barely had enough time to grab his shoulder to hold him back.

"Save your energy mate, it's not worth it," James said, keeping a firm hold on Sirius, and trying to drag him against the wall. Bella was smirking triumphantly, and Sirius was still struggling to get at her, muttering incomprehensible things, although James could have sworn he heard the words _giant squid, Bella, _and_ eaten_.

"Sirius stop! Remus, help me," James said, and Remus hesitantly stepped forward. Sirius was beginning to stop struggling so much, but before James and Remus had completely succeeded in settling him down, they were broken up by a voice at the door.

"Not fighting, are we boys?" Professor Slughorn said, startling them all, and causing Sirius to quickly stop squirming, and Remus and James to let go of him.

"No, sir. Of course not," James said, lying very convincingly. Professor Slughorn decided it would be easiest to just let it go.

"Why don't you come in. The rest of your classmates are arriving," Professor Slughorn said, pointing down the hall. There, sure enough, were the rest of the students, the Gryffindors walking slightly behind the Slytherins.

"You all right mate?" James asked Sirius as they walked in and found seats.

"I would have beat her into a pulp if you hadn't stopped me," Sirius said, staring off at nothing in particular.

"And risked expulsion? She's your cousin, she was just trying to get to you," Peter said.

"No," Sirius said, looking back at them, "It's not like that. She's right. My parents wouldn't care if I was eaten by the giant squid, they don't give a shit about me. They would probably be happy that I was killed. Got rid of a 'blood traitor' after all," Sirius looked rather upset, and James was about to say something to change the subject, but was saved the trouble by Professor Slughorn, who began the lesson.

"Welcome, to your first ever potions class. I am Professor Slughorn. I would like to begin by calling roll. Bellatrix Black," Bella raised her hand, and Sirius caught her smirk in his direction. Professor Slughorn then called Sirius's name, and he too raised his hand, still glaring at Bella.

"Henry Crabbe," A large, muscular, stupid looking Slytherin raised his hand.

"Bartimus Crouch, Jr," A short boy with sandy blond hair raised his hand, "I remember teaching your father. He was brilliant. I do hope he is still well," Professor Slughorn said. Bartimus Crouch nodded his head, and Professor Slughorn continued.

"Lily Evans," Lily raised her hand eagerly, and Professor Slughorn looked at her for a bit before moving on.

"Alice Leoni," Professor Slughorn said, and Alice, too, raised her hand.

"Remus Lupin," Remus raised his hand and Professor Slughorn commented about knowing his and Alice's mothers, who were apparently twins.

"Marlene McKinnon," However, Marlene was off staring in space when Professor Slughorn called her name, so she didn't hear him, or answer, "Marlene? Is there a Marlene McKinnon here?" Professor Slughorn called again, looking around at the students. Lily elbowed Marlene, who was sitting next to her, and told her that Professor Slughorn had just called her name.

"Sorry, I'm here," Marlene said loudly, causing everyone to look at her. She was blushing slightly.

"Thank you," Professor Slughorn said, smiling, "Peter Pettigrew," Peter raised his hand and looked around. Most people were still looking at Marlene, sniggering slightly.

"James Potter," James raised his hand, "Oh, I remember your father quite well. He was such a great wizard. It was a shame the way he went," Professor Slughorn said, smiling kindly. However, when he said that, James looked down, a sad expression crossing his face. Lily knew he didn't like to talk about his dad.

"What's up with James?" Marlene asked Lily quietly.

"He doesn't like to talk about his dad. He's dead," Lily said, feeling very sorry for the boy she usually despised.

"Melanie Prewett," Melanie raised her hand, but she also was looking curiously at James.

"Severus Snape," Snape raised his hand from a shadowy table in the corner, where he sat all alone.

"And, last, but certainly not least, Patricia Zabini," The dark skinned girl who was with Bellatrix earlier raised her hand.

"Now, we aren't going to start brewing potions for two weeks. This week we are just going to focus on basic safety measures," Professor Slughorn said.

The rest of they class they took notes. Professor Slughorn had not given any homework, but he had told them they would have a pop quiz the next class period about what to do if a potion catches fire.

"Doesn't he know that the very definition of a pop quiz is to be a surprise?" Sirius said, chuckling.

"Hey, I'm not complaining, now we know that we should study for that. Does anyone know what we have next?" James asked. Peter opened his bag to dig out his schedule but Remus beat him to the answer.

"Break. Then Lunch at 12 and Charms after that," Remus said instantly, not even looking at his schedule, then inwardly cringed. _Idiot. They are going to get suspicious. Everyone knows werewolves have ridiculously good memories._ Remus thought as James Sirius and Peter looked at him. Peter still had his hand in his bag, as he had stopped mid-search.

"What?" Remus asked nervously.

"You've only had your schedule for about 3 hours, and you already memorized it?" James asked, chuckling, as they walked back to Gryffindor tower, "You must have, like, some sort of photographic memory," James continued as they sat down in the common room.

"Uh, yeah. It runs in my family. Alice has a really good memory too," Remus said, trying to recover from his little slip-up.

"Alice said her memory was horrible on the boat ride over here," Peter said. Remus thought back, and realized that he was right. He really had some quick thinking to do.

"Uh, by Alice, I meant my mom. That's her name too," Remus said, obviously lying.

"You call your mom by her first name?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Um, yes? You know, we had better get down to the Great Hall if we don't want to miss lunch," Remus stated, heading towards the portrait hole.

"But it's only 11:15!" James yelled after Remus, but he was already out the portrait hole. James, Sirius, and Peter agreed that Remus was hiding something, and decided to find out what it was.

After a few games of wizard chess the boys set off to the Great Hall for lunch, where they saw Remus sitting at the Gryffindor table with Alice. The two were talking in hushed voices but stopped when the boys arrived. Lunch was particularly uneventful, with the obvious exception of James and Sirius eating faster than the speed of light. After it was over, the eight Gryffindors headed off to Charms together.

Charms was also rather boring, as Professor Flitwick, the small, squeaky professor in charge of the subject, also only did an introduction. They had class with the Ravenclaws, and Lily sat in the front row next to Emmeline Vance, the girl she had met during the sorting, and Rose LaFleur, the girl who was, obviously, French.

Lily got along with them quite well, and learned that Rose did, in fact, live in France. She normally would have gone to Beauxbatons, but her parents didn't like the headmaster nearly as much as they liked Dumbledore. By the end of the class period, Lily had discovered that she really liked charms. She checked her schedule on the way out of the classroom, and saw that her next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was also with the Ravenclaws.

The teacher was not there when she walked into the classroom, and she sat down next to Marlene, who was talking to two boys from Ravenclaw, who appeared to be identical twins. A few minutes later, Emmeline walked in and sat down on Lily's right.

By the time everyone was in the classroom, seated, the professor was still not there. Everyone was starting to get restless, and about 5 minutes after class should have started, a man came hurrying into the room. He had dark blond hair, and grey eyes that seemed to have no warmth in their depths, even though he was smiling. He looked like he was about 25 years old. As he walked in, he was pulling the sleeve of his robes down over his left arm, and he stopped right in front of his desk, leaning back against it as though sitting.

He looked around at the students, and his eyes rested on James for a few seconds longer than anyone else. However, he soon looked away, and began to speak.

"Welcome, to your first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I am you professor, Professor Avery," the man said. His voice was deep, and sounded slightly vacant, "The dark arts are a very," he paused and his eyes, yet again, found their way to James, "special branch of magic, and you must there fore study hard to learn how to defend yourselves against them," he continued to speak, and every so often, his eyes would find their way towards James, and stay there for about a minute, then he would quickly look away.

"The teacher keeps looking at you James. I think he's in love," Sirius muttered, causing James to laugh.

Lily kept looking back at James, who was seated in the far left corner of the back row, a place Avery would not normally look unless he was looking at someone. James seemed to be aware that the professor was looking at him, and was looking back at him, a curious expression on his face. Sirius then whispered something in his ear which caused him to laugh.

Lily looked away, but soon found out that Marlene and the one of the boys next to her were looking back and forth from James to Professor Avery as well. Lily looked around and noticed that many people were either looking at James or Professor Avery, and few people seemed to be paying attention to what he was actually saying. In fact, Alice, and the other twin next to Marlene were to only ones who were.

"...So, you will no have any homework tonight, and we will be studying the theory of counter curses on Wednesday. You may go in a few minutes, and may talk amongst yourselves for the remaining time," Professor Avery said, and with that, he turned away from James and went to sit at his desk where he began writing feverishly.

When they were all dismissed from class, Lily and Marlene met up with Alice and Melanie, and they all headed to the common room for a 30 minute break before their first broomstick lesson.

"I'm really excited to try flying," Alice said as she sat in a chair by the fire place. Since the moment she saw a broom in Diagon Alley, she knew she would love flying.

"Do we have flying lessons all year?" Marlene asked, who didn't seem as eager as Alice.

"No, just the first month. From then on, the time that was flying lessons becomes study time in the library," Melanie answered, and Marlene looked relieved.

They spent most of the remaining time talking about how Professor Avery had been staring at James. They left about 20 minutes later, followed by the boys (who had spent the break huddled in a corner, whispering animatedly), and they all headed down to the grounds together.

After a surprisingly eventful flying lesson (Marlene flat out refused to get on it, and Lily hovered for about 2 seconds before jumping off), the young Gryffindors headed off to dinner together, exhausted after their first day.

As they walked through the grounds towards the castle, they walked by Hagrid's hut. Lily looked over and saw Hagrid in the garden tending to some rather large pumpkins. Lily waved and Hagrid waved back smiling. Lily smiled too and turned away, hurrying up to the castle because a sudden wind blew.

Lily sat down at the Gryffindor table and began loading her plate with food. Learning magic really seemed to take a lot out of a person, Lily noted as she realized just how tired and hungry she was. A few minutes after the meal started, a large barn owl flew in the room.

"Huh, odd. Usually mail comes in the mornings," Melanie said as she looked up at the bird. It was a few moments until Lily realized it was headed towards them

"I think it's for one of us," Marlene said, voicing Lily's thoughts. The owl landed on the table right in front of Lily and she saw that it was indeed addressed to her.

Lily grabbed the letter off of the owl's foot and opened it up.

_**Hi Lily**_

_**I hope your first day of classes went alright. Hows about you come down to me hut Saturday afternoon around 1:30. I'll have some food ready for you and I'd love to hear all about yer first week of classes. And if you'd like you can bring some of your friends too.**_

_**Hagrid**_

"It's Hagrid, he's invited me down to his hut on Saturday to tell him about my first week. Do you guys wasn't to come with me?" Lily asked. Marlene, Melanie, and Alice nodded and Lily quickly scribbled a reply on the back of the parchment and sent it off with the owl.

After dinner, the girls were all exhausted, and so they headed off to the Gryffindor tower and crawled right into bed. Lily smiled as she thought about her first week, and she couldn't wait until Saturday when she would get to see Hagrid.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Okay, so there ya go. Okay, so basically I'm just gonna type some random stuff down here because my author's notes are so short this chapter... and usually they are long... sooo... adhflikdjffahldsjf REVIEW hldsfjdsfjdslfksdhfl'dsf REIVEW ahodkjdlhasdf;dhsdlfh REVIEW haodlfjsdoigh REVIEW theaoifhda REVIEW sdbgilasjg REVIEW!

Did y'all get that subliminal message?

REVIEW!!


	6. Zebras, Pranks, and Middle Names

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter Six: Zebras, Pranks and Middle Names**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything that you recognize... so please don't sue me!

**A/N: **Here is the next chapter. Basically this entire chapter, save the first little bit, is random nothingness because I think when I wrote it originally I was stuck or whatever, so I just did a random chapter, haha. I hope you like it! OH AND BY THE WAY! This chapter contain's the marauder's first prank!!! Monumentous, eh? So please REVIEW at the end of this chapter and tell me what you thought of it!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

A dark figure moved among the crowd of waiting people. He cautiously approached his master and dropped onto one knee, sinking into a low bow.

"Get up," said the shadowy figure on the throne, and his devoted servant stood up. The man's voice was very cold and snakelike, and would send shivers down one's spine. He continued to speak, sounding slightly like a hissing snake, "You told me you have news?"

"Yes master. I have found the boy. He is just a first year. Manipulating him should be easy," The servant said, waiting for his master's reaction.

"Very good. Befriend him. When you gain his trust, take the watch. Report back to me soon. You are dismissed," said the cold-voiced man on the throne. He was clearly pleased.

"Thank you master. I will not fail you," the man said, sweeping from the dungeons.

Somewhere, miles away from Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort was plotting.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

By Saturday, Lily was very happy that it was the weekend. She still had a little bit of homework to do, but decided to wait until Sunday to finish it. There was no rush. She was also excited to go see Hagrid later that day. Since Hagrid's invitation was for 1:30, the girls were going to go to lunch before and eat there– Brighid had been kind enough to tell them that Hagrid's cooking was not exactly what one would call 'desirable'.

Her favorite classes were turning out to be Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was also doing well in Potions, but the idea of spending two hours locked in the dungeons with a bunch of Slytherins did not exactly appeal to her.

She was woken up on Saturday morning much earlier than she would have liked by Marlene screaming.

"What is it?" Lily asked as she sat straight up. She looked around and saw that Alice and Melanie also seemed to have just woken up. Marlene, however, was no where to be seen.

"Uh, Marlene, where are you?" Alice asked, walking over to her bed, which was strangely empty of sheets.

"I'm right here, and I can't get up," said Marlene's voice. It was coming from a jumble of sheets next to her bed, and upon closer inspection, Alice discovered Marlene was tangled up inside of them, "I fell out of the bed, and now I cant get untangle myself," at this comment, everyone began laughing, completely forgetting that it was 8:30, which was a sinful hour on a Saturday morning.

Alice and Lily helped Marlene untangle herself, all the while laughing. Melanie was laughing so hard, she was temporarily incapable of movement. Once Marlene was free of the devil sheets, she started to get dressed, the other girls following suit. Since they were already up, they decided it would be best just to go to breakfast, which started at 9:00.

When they walked into the common room, they didn't expect to see anyone. It was, after all, 8:45 on a Saturday morning. Therefore, they were surprised to see James and Sirius talking to Frank Longbottom in hushed tones.

"Hey," Alice said, walking up to the boys, who immediately stopped talking, "You are up early."

"So are you," Sirius commented (Melanie shot Marlene a dirty glare as he said this).

"Are Remus and Peter up yet?" Lily asked, sitting down on the couch next to Frank.

"Did I hear my name?" said a voice from the boy's staircase.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you were awake," Lily said as Remus sat down on the arm of a chair while Peter sitting on the floor next to James.

"Oh, no, sorry Lily. He isn't up yet," James said, causing the rest of them to laugh, "Well, it really has been nice talking to you all, but if you will excuse us, we have business to attend to. Good day," James said in a fake proper voice, and with that, the five boys left.

"I'd bet anyone 5 galleons they are about to pull a prank," Lily said, staring after them.

After a few minutes the girls left for breakfast, forgetting all about what the boys had been up to.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"So Frank, you got everything we need for the prank today?" Peter asked Frank in a hushed voice as they all walked down to breakfast.

"Yep. I already charmed them too. How you think of these things is beyond me," Frank said. James had an excellent mind for pranks, but combined with three other marauding pranksters (A/N: tee hee), well... Let's just say there won't be a dull moment at Hogwarts for the next seven years.

"Good. I can't wait, this is going to be so cool," Sirius said, grinning wildly.

When they entered the hall, the only other people there were a few 5th year Hufflepuffs and some assorted Ravenclaws. The boys sat down and began to talk about Quiddich until the girls arrived. Their conversation then turned to how their first week of classes had gone.

Once breakfast was done, the boys went outside, deciding to take a walk until lunch, which was when their prank was to be pulled. They walked around the lake, and everything was quiet at first, but, thanks to Remus, some conversations eventually did come up.

"Hey guys, are zebras black with white stripes, or white with black stripes?" Remus asked suddenly, catching them all off guard. James then cracked a smile, and soon they were all laughing at the randomness of it, even Remus.

"How can you even ask that? Everyone knows the 'black' on zebras is really a deep purple, and its obvious the stripes are the white," Sirius said, rolling his eyes at them. They all stared at him for a moment until they realized he was joking, and, once again, started to laugh.

They continued to talk about zebras, and eventually their conversation ended up being an argument over which was better, chocolate or vanilla ice cream. James and Peter said that vanilla was better, but Sirius and Remus insisted that chocolate was.

"But chocolate leaves that nasty after taste in your mouth," Peter said, making a face of disgust even thinking about it.

"That's what makes it good!" Remus exclaimed.

"We had better go find Frank, lunch starts in 15 minutes," James said, trying to stop what could become a vicious argument over ice cream flavors.

"Okay," Peter said, defeated, and the four boys walked into the entrance hall, almost bumping into Frank himself.

"Come on you guys," Frank said, pocketing his wand, which he had been holding as he walked out of the Great Hall.

They stood outside the Great Hall, waiting until more people were there. After a few minutes, they walked in and sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table. They had decided to pull the prank about halfway through lunch, when there would be the most people there to witness it. Frank had set up everything after breakfast, so they were ready at any time.

About 20 minutes into lunch, Frank got up, saying he was going to the restroom. That was the signal. Frank was going to sneak over to the Slytherin table under an invisibility cloak he had borrowed from his father's friend. When he got there, he was going to signal over to Remus, who was the only one who had mastered the levitation charm in their charms class.

Remus looked over to the Slytherin table, and saw Frank pull the cloak off of his hand, and gave him a thumbs up. Slowly, Remus pulled his wand out of his pocket, pointed it under the Slytherin table, and wispered _Windardrium Leviosa_. Instantly, a huge collection of Filibuster's Fabulous Wet- Start Fireworks levitated off of the ground, so that they were right in front of where Frank was crouched. He wispered a charm, and water issued from his wand, instantly activating the fireworks.

Catastrophic was putting it lightly.

The fireworks exploded from the Slytherin table, and everyone in the Hall looked in that direction. However, no culprit was to be seen, as Frank was invisible, and already dashing out of the Hall. He casually walked back in to where his friends were, staring in awe at the fireworks, which were now criss-crossing overhead, and as everyone looked up at then, they all saw the fireworks were forming words. James and his friends just laughed, as everyone read the words that appeared to be written in the sky, due to the enchanted ceiling.

**Hogwarts welcomes a new generation of pranksters. Victims beware.**

Everyone began to laugh in amazement, when suddenly, the fireworks exploded, showering the hall in confetti.

James, Peter, and Sirius were still laughing, and even Remus was cracking up. Frank had left to talk to his other friends, and James glanced over at the girls. Lily was trying (and failing) to hide her laughter, and the others didn't have a prayer of hiding it as they were all cracking up.

By the end of lunch, the boys were still talking about their spectacular prank. They were sure no on knew it was them. They were, however, wrong.

As they walked out of the hall, two boys walked up to them. They were identical twins with messy brown hair (though not nearly as messy as James's) and brown eyes. James recognized them as Ravenclaws of their year.

"Hi," one of them said, sticking his hand out to shake Sirius's, who he was closest to him, "I'm Mike, and this is my brother Matty," he said, gesturing to his brother.

"We just _have_ to congratulate you on the prank you pulled today. It was very well pulled, and we wouldn't have known it was you if someone hadn't thrown a pea at Mike, causing him to turn around right as Remus levitated the fireworks," Matty said, walking forward so that he was even with his twin. James grinned.

"Thanks," he said, looking at them, "I take it you two are pranksters as well?" The twins nodded.

"Excellent. So, do you guys have anything planned for anytime soon," Sirius asked as the six boys walked out onto the grounds and sat down under a large beech tree.

For the next hour or so they sat and talked about pranks, Quiddich, and various other subjects. Remus tried to keep his randomness to a minimum, but managed to spark and interesting conversation about if the Giant Squid was really a vegetarian.

At about 2:30, Matty suggested that they to inside and start their homework. The twins went a different way to get to the Ravenclaw common room, and the four remaining boys walked up to the Gryffindor tower.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Those boys truly are geniuses," Marlene said as the four girls headed out to Hagrid's hut. Since they had gone to lunch, they were there to witness the first official prank of the first year Gryffindors... and Frank...

"Believe me, after the first 2 or 3 pranks, it just gets annoying," Lily said. She had to admit that their pranks were funny a lot of the time, but as they were usually aimed at her, she didn't usually enjoy them.

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you two knew each other before coming to Hogwarts," Alice said. As it was still only about 1:10 they decided to just walk around the grounds until 1:30.

"Oh yeah, I knew him. I have many a fabulous memory from elementary school that involved him. Did I ever tell you about the time that I fell asleep during nap time in kindergarten and he drew a mustache on my face?" Lily said. All the other girls laughed and even Lily cracked a reluctant smile.

The girls continued talking and laughing until 1:30, when they headed over to Hagrid's hut. Lily reached forward and knocked on the door. Instantly it opened, and they stood facing the large, smiling gamekeeper.

Hagrid ushered them inside, and as the girls walked in they found themselves very glad that they had already eaten– there were some kind of cakes on the table that looked as though they could survive an atomic bombing.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

When they got back to the dorm, James challenged Peter to a game of wizard's chess, and Sirius watched them with interest, as they were very evenly matched. Remus on the other hand, was sitting on his bed, writing in a notebook. It was quiet for a few minutes (with the exception of the chess pieces mutilating each other), but they were saved from their impending boredom, yet again, by Remus's random tactics.

"Hey Sirius, what is your middle name?" Remus asked suddenly as Peter's night captured James's queen.

"Orion, why?" Sirius replied, turning around to look at Remus.

"No reason," Remus said, looking back at his notebook and continuing to write.

"What are you writing about me?" Sirius asked, getting up and walking over to Remus. Remus, however, was too quick for him. By the time Sirius was over at Remus's bed, he had slammed the book shut and stuffed it under his pillow.

"It isn't about you," Remus said matter-of-factly, sitting on his pillow to prevent Sirius from taking his notebook, "I'm writing to my mother, and I am telling her about my roommates."

"In a muggle notebook?" Sirius asked Remus, who nodded, "And anyway, that still means you are writing about me," Sirius said, but Remus didn't answer, as he was already writing again, so Sirius just went back to watching Peter and James. However, they were stopped again by Remus, who started to laugh.

"What now?" Peter asked, looking upset that Remus had interrupted his concentration again.

"Sirius, yo-your initials are S.O.B.?" Remus gasped between laughs. When he said that, James and Peter also started to laugh. Sirius, however, just looked at the others, seemingly confused.

"Yes. Is there something wrong with that?" Sirius asked defensively. Everyone else was still laughing, so it took a while before anyone could answer. Finally, James gained enough control to choke out an answer.

"Well, you see, there is a 'not-so-nice' phrase that also has the initials of S.O.B. Not to mention the fact that your first and middle names are start constellations," James said, and Sirius thought about it for a while before realizing what they were talking about.

"Oh, come on! Like you guys don't have embarrassing initials and middle names. What are yours?" Sirius asked.

"Elliot," James said, "A quite common, normal middle name if you ask me," he finished, grinning.

"Mine is William," Peter said, and Sirius was downhearted that he might be the only one with a bad middle name and initials.

"Wait, what is yours Remus?" Sirius asked. Remus turned red and muttered something incomprehensible, "What was that? Couldn't hear ya buddy," Sirius said, knowing that it must be something bad.

"Does it really matter? My initials are R.J.L., nothing weird about that. Does the middle name make a difference?" He asked, but gave in at the look Sirius was giving him, "Oh, fine. It's Jeremiah," he muttered.

"Instantly, all of the boys started laughing, and Sirius commented about how Remus was 'the master of hypocrisy' (A/N: is that a word?). Even Remus couldn't help but to crack a smile.

"Jeremiah!," James screamed really loudly, sounding slightly like an old lady (A/N: Inside joke with my friends, don't ask), "That's priceless," James continued. Over the next few hours, the boys had some more random conversations, and Peter had beaten James twice at chess, only to lose to him thrice.

Remus was having an excellent time, just joking around with his friends. This was something he had never experienced before. He hadn't had a true friend since he was 5 years old, due to his condition, and he loved it. The full moon was in 4 days, and his symptoms would start to kick in by Monday. He would have to be really careful, or his friends would never speak to him again. And he wasn't sure if he would be able to handle that.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Yay, chapter 6 done! Did you like it? REIVEW!! TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT!

Next chapter includes... Remus' first full moon at Hogwarts! POOR REMY-POO! So review, and I'll update faster!


	7. The Full Moon

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter Seven: The Full Moon**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything that you recognize.

**A/N: **Okay, so here is the next chapter! Thank you so much to my reviewers! You guys are awesome! I hope you like this chapter... it's got the full moon... poor Remy-poo! Ahem... so anyway, I hope you like this chapter, and please REVIEW at the end!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"I told you to get it done earlier," said James, watching as Sirius and Peter rushed to finish their essays for transfiguration. It was 8:30 on Monday night, and since they hadn't had Transfiguration that day, Sirius and Peter hadn't considered the essay an issue over the weekend.

It wasn't, however, a very hard essay, and Sirius, who was skilled in transfiguration, had his nearly completed. Peter, on the other hand, was having trouble.

They had defense against the dark arts that day, and the professor had, once again, shown a strange interest in James. Whenever James raised his hand, he was instantly called on, and Professor Avery had asked him to stay after class, in order to congratulate him on the excellent job he had done on all of his assignments so far.

"I wonder where Remus is," Sirius said suddenly, looking up. None of the boys had seen Remus since after their last class, flying. He had skipped dinner in order to go to the hospital wing for a headache, but they had all expected him to be back by this time.

As if on cue, Remus walked in the room not even a minute later. He was pale and shaky, and looked as if he had just been violently ill. Peter, James, and Sirius all gasped at the sight of him.

"Oh my god, Remus. What happened to you?" James asked, staring in disbelief at his friend's condition.

"Nothing, I just... ate something that didn't agree with me, that's all," Remus said, not looking at any of the boys as he crawled into bed. He didn't, however, get the peace he had hoped for.

"But you skipped dinner. And when you went to the hospital wing, you said you had a headache, not a stomachache," Sirius pointed out, but Remus only answered him with a small snore. He had already fallen asleep.

The boys just shrugged it off. Sirius and Peter went back to their essays, and James began to read a book on Quiddich .

Sirius and Peter soon finished their essays, and the boys all went to bed, pushing Remus's illness to the corner of their minds. It was surely no big deal. Oh, how wrong they were.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO  
When James woke up the next morning, it was to see Remus huddled over his bed, packing a small suitcase. He looked just as sick as he had last night, and seemed to be in a rush.

"Remus?" James asked, putting his glasses on and sitting up.

"James!" Remus said, turning around sharply. He didn't seem to have noticed that James was awake.

"Are you going somewhere?" James asked, looking at the open suitcase lying on Remus's bed.

"Oh, uh, yeah. My mom is rather sick and I am going to visit her," Remus said, closing his suitcase and locking it, "Well, I'm going to go now, I should be back by Friday. Tell Peter and Sirius where I went. Bye," Remus said, grabbing his suitcase and heading for the door.

When Remus walked into the common room, he was pleased to see it was empty. It was still quite early after all. He quietly headed out the portrait hole, and toward the hospital wing. When he had gone there the night before, Madam Branche, the nurse there, had explained what would be happening over the next few days.

He was going to spend Tuesday and Wednesday in the infirmary's private ward. There, he was going to be treated until Wednesday evening when he would be taken somewhere to transform.

When he arrived, he was greeted by Madam Branche. He was led to his room, where he immediately lay down as he was overcome by a wave of dizziness. He was sure the next few days would feel dreadfully long.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

When Lily and her friends arrived at breakfast, they walked over to the boys. They were all surprised to see that Remus wasn't there.

"Where is Remus?" Marlene asked, sitting down and loading her plate with bacon and eggs.

"He went home to visit his mom who is sick," James explained, "He said he would be back by Friday."

"Oh," Lily said, also sitting down, "Wow, he is going to be missing almost a full week of school. Does he want someone to get his assignments for him?"

"He talked to me last night. I am going to do it for him," Alice said quickly, before James had a chance to answer.

They finished eating, and headed to their first class of the day, transfiguration with the Ravenclaws. When they walked in, the girls went to go sit with some Ravenclaws, and he boys headed in the direction of the twins.

When they walked over, James and Peter sat down. Sirius also tried to sit down, but ended up missing the chair. He fell down on top of his arm, and he hit his head hard on the floor. A faint crack was heard if you listened closely. Pain filled Sirius's arm as laughter filled the classroom around him.

"Oh, Mr. Black, are you okay?" Professor McGonnagal asked, rushing to his side.  
"I think I heard a crack professor," James said. Sirius was still on the ground. His head was throbbing, and his arm was sticking out at an odd angle. However, once Sirius got over the initial shock of doing something so stupid, he actually found it quite funny.

"Very well. Mr. Potter, please take Mr. Black to the infirmary. Madam Branche should have something for him," Professor McGonnagal said, and with that, the two boys left the transfiguration classroom.

"I can't believe you just did that, Sirius," James said, trying to hold back a laugh.

"It wasn't my fault, I swear Mike moved my chair," Sirius replied, "Plus now my arm and head are killing me."

"Yeah, but it was actually pretty funny when you think about it. I mean how many people actually do that?" James said. Then, as an afterthought, added, "It's also pretty cool that we get to skip transfiguration."

"Yeah, and it's especially good for me since I never did finish that essay," Sirius replied, and together they walked up to the hospital wing, quickly being greeted by the energetic nurse.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Here is your potion Mr. Lupin," Madam Branche said, handing Remus a goblet full of steamy, nasty smelling potion. As Remus drank it, a bell rang from somewhere on the other side of the ward.

"Oh dear, I have another patient. I'll right back honey," Madam Branche said, and quickly left.

Remus lay back against his pillows, but soon sat back up. A familiar voice had floated into the room.

"...and he just sort of… fell down, hitting his head and breaking his arm," came the voice of none other than James Potter. Remus remembered something Madam Branche had told him the day before. She had said that even though he could see people in the other ward, they could not see him. Because this thought came to him, he got up to see what James was talking about. He saw that Sirius was with James, and his arm looked broken.

"It wasn't my fault. I'm really not as dumb as James makes me sound," Sirius protested and Remus had to try very hard to hold back a laugh.

"Oh, Mr. Black, you poor dear. Come sit down here, and I will be right back," Madam Branche said, leading Sirius to a bed, and then hurrying out into her office.

"Man, I still can't believe you did that," James said, grinning. He was standing next to the bed that Sirius was sitting on.

_I wonder what he did to break his arm_, Remus thought.

"Yeah. Too bad Remus wasn't there to see it. Falling off of a chair is not something you see every day," Sirius said, smiling also.  
_Ha! He fell off of his chair! Wait, now they are talking about me_, Remus thought, continuing to eavesdrop.

"I wonder what Mrs. Lupin has," James was saying. Remus made a mental note to think of a disease before he returned to school.

"Same. You said he would be getting back on Friday, right?" Sirius asked, James nodded, so Sirius continued, "Maybe we should owl a get well card to her." Remus's heart sunk.

"No, we don't even know what she has. We'll ask Remus when he gets back and send one later," James said. Remus made another mental note not to tell them anything about his mother's 'disease'.

"Ok. But isn't it so ironic that he was sick when he went to go visit his sick mom? I wonder if he is better by now," Sirius said. James opened his mouth to respond, but was stopped by Madam Branche, who had hurried in, carrying several assorted potion bottles and a wand.

As Madam Branche treated Sirius, Remus was overcome by nausea, and had to lie down. Before Madam Branche had finished treating Sirius, Remus had already drifted off to sleep.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Sirius had, in fact, broken his arm, but the head injury was slightly more complicated. It turned out that he had a mild concussion, which had become evident as he had fainted while walking out of the hospital wing.

James carried Sirius back to his bed, and Madam Branche gave him a few potions.

"Concussions are easy enough to cure, but now that he has fainted, it is best to let him come to on his own, rather than wake him with magic. I'm afraid he will have to stay here until he wakes up," Madam Branche had said before sending James back to classes.

James was now sitting in History of Magic, passing notes with Peter. He looked up and saw Lily, writing furiously on a sheet of parchment, pausing every now and then to look at the teacher.

_What a nerd_, he thought, _Evans is actually taking notes in History of Magic_.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Lily was sitting in History of Magic, passing notes with Marlene when she felt eyes on her. She turned around to see James writing on a piece of parchment, pausing briefly to look at the teacher.

Wow, what a nerd, she thought,_ Potter is actually taking notes in History of Magic_.

When History of Magic was over, Lily walked down to the dungeons for potions. She loved the potions class itself, she actually excelled greatly in it, but she couldn't stand having to take a class with the Slytherins. Bella Black was simply unbearable.

As she, Alice, Marlene and Melanie walked down the dungeon corridor, they saw James and Peter talking to Snape. James had just said something when the girls walked up that caused Sirius to laugh nervously and Snape to get red in the face.  
The girls just ignored it. If James wasn't bugging Snape, he was taunting him. It didn't seem like that big of a deal; no one ever got hurt, so people just let it be.

A few minutes after Lily arrived, the door opened, and the class filed in. Lily set up her cauldron in the front row next to Alice.

"Welcome," came the cheery voice of Professor Slughorn, "Today we are going to be making our first real potion. The potion we are making is the confusion draft. It is rather simple, but if you need assistance, just raise your hand and I will come help you. The directions are in pg. 21 of your book, and the ingredients are in the store cupboard. Off you go,"

Lily opened her book and looked at the ingredients. Alice went up to get the necessary ingredients. Lily lit the fire just like they had been taught, and when Alice returned with the ingredients, the two girls began to chop up roots.

"This potions seems pretty easy," Alice said, beginning to measure the Armadillo bile, "There aren't many ingredients in it." Lily agreed, and once everything was measured and cut, the girls put the ingredients into the cauldron, exactly as directed. First 1 3/4 cups of Armadillo bile, then five ounces of crushed dung beetles... the potion went on, listing about three more ingredients. The girls then had to stir it five times clockwise and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

"Is everything going well?" came a voice from behind Alice. The girls turned around to see Professor Slughorn, smile through his bushy, ginger moustache.

"Yes sir, everything is fine," Lily said politely.

"Good. Lily, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a few moments in private?" Professor Slughorn said.

"Oh, sure," Lily said, getting up from her seat. She followed Professor Slughorn into a shadowy corner, curiosity getting the better of her.

"What is it sir? Did I do something wrong?" She asked nervously.

"Oh, no! I just wanted to tell you that you are doing very well in this class, and I was wondering if you wanted to come to a little party I am having this Friday night," Professor Slughorn said merrily.

"A party?" Lily said. Were teachers allowed to throw parties?

"Well, maybe party wasn't the best word. I have a club here at Hogwarts called the Slug club, and Friday is something of a back to school celebration. The Slug club provides support for talented witches and wizards, and you, Miss Evans, are very talented. Think it over, and hopefully I will see you on Friday," Professor Slughorn said. He then walked away, leaving Lily standing alone in the corner.

Lily made her way back to her desk just as Alice was ladling the thick, orange potion into a jar.

"What was that all about?" Alice asked.

"I'll tell you later," Lily said as she and Alice went up to turn their potion into Professor Slughorn.

XoxoXOxoXOxoXO  
"How are you feeling Mr. Lupin?" Madam Branche asked kindly as Remus woke from his slumber. It was about 9:00 in the morning on Wednesday, the day of the full moon.

"Fine," Remus said weakly. He tried to sit up, but was unable to, "Is Sirius still here?"

"Yes, he is still unconscious. If he doesn't wake up before tonight, I'm afraid I will have to wake him myself. No one else can be here when I take you to where you'll transform," Madam Branche replied. She got up and walked into her office.

Remus read for most of the day, and slept a bit as well. Sirius regained consciousness on his own accord at about 2:45, and Madam Branche happily sent him on his way. As the day wore on, Remus's symptoms began to worsen. He vomited a few times, and was itchy all over his body, due to the fact that hair would be growing there in a few hours.

At 6:35, Madam Branche explained that Remus would be transforming in a small shack located in Hogsmeade. She told Remus that there was a passageway from the Hogwarts grounds into the shack. She then cast a spell on him, taking him by surprise.

"What did you just do?" Remus asked as Madam Branche placed her wand back in her pocket. He felt like she had just cracked a raw egg on his head. He looked down, only to see that his legs were gone.

"I cast a disillusionment charm on you," Madam Branch told a shocked Remus. His shock soon turned into confusion, so she continued, "It makes it so you blend in with your surroundings. That way, no one will see you and get suspicious. Also, I will be taking you down during dinner, so no one will even see me."

A few minutes later, Remus found himself in the dark corridors, following Madam Branche down to the grounds. He was silent most of the trip, but when he saw that Madam Branche was headed toward the Whomping Willow, he spoke up.

"Why are we going toward the Whomping Willow?" Remus nervously asked, increasing his pace. The moon was due to come out soon, and he wanted to make it to the shack in time,

"The secret passage is guarded by that tree," Madam Branche replied. When they arrived at the tree, it began to flail its branches threateningly. Madame Branche reached forward and grabbed a long stick from the ground. She gently pressed a knot at the base of the trunk, and the tree instantly froze. Before Remus could even question her next move, she got down and slid into a gap in the tree roots.

"Come on down Remus, and I'll take that charm off of you," came the soft voice of Madam Branche. Remus looked down and saw her face through the roots. He jumped down and landed at the beginning of what looked like a long tunnel. Madam Branche took the spell off him, and he felt like she had, once again, cracked an egg on his head.

Madam Branche lit her wand, and set off down the tunnel, Remus on her heels. After what felt like at least 10 minutes, they came to a stop. Remus looked up and saw stairs leading up to... somewhere. Madam Branche climbed them, and at the very top, she opened a trap door. She climbed up through it, into a room. Remus appeared moments later, and looked around the room.

It was very neat and organized, but also pretty plain. The walls, floor, and ceiling were just wood, and the furniture had a Victorian air about it.

"This is where you will be transforming each month. The shack has many strengthening charms on it, so there is no need to worry about anything. I will come back here and get you at about 8:00, 30 minutes after sunrise. Good night," Madam Branche said, leaving the shack and locking the trap-door securely.  
Remus sat down on the love seat, as sharp pains shot through his legs. Remus was used to the transforming by now, and knew right when everything would come.

He fell off the couch, and his skin began to burn as he grew hair all over his body. He was convulsing on the ground, screaming in pain as he slowly transformed into a mindless beast. Once the transformation was complete, he let out a howl, and began to tear up the furniture. His mind was a victim of the wolf.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

So, there you go! Sirius is a dummy and fell off his chair! Woot!

So, next chapter will be... the Slug Club, among other things... so REIVEW! And I'll update soon! And now comes the REVIVAL of my poem... hee hee...

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	8. Disaster at the Slug Club

**Year 1: The Legend Begins**

**Chapter Eight: Disaster at the Slug Club**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything you recognize.

**A/N: **Here is chapter 8! Woot woot! Thank you so much to those who reviewed last chapter! I hope you like this chapter, and please review at the end!!!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Remus sat up weakly, the sun beating down on him. He couldn't remember anything about the night before, but knew the transformation had been worse than usual.

There were scratches all over his body, and as he looked around, he saw that he had scratched and bitten nearly all of the furniture. Remus looked at the watch on his wrist and saw that it was 7:45, about 15 minutes until Madam Branche was going to come and collect him.

He walked down the stairs and into the room where the trapdoor was located. He sat down on the sofa and waited until Madam Branche came. At 8:03, Remus heard someone walking up the stairs, and saw Madam Branche pop her head through the trapdoor moments later.

"How are you feeling Remus?" Madam Branche asked kindly.

"Not so great," Remus answered, getting to his feet.

"Oh, you poor thing," Madam Branche said, "Come on, I'll see if I can do anything for you." Remus followed Madam Branche through the trapdoor and they walked along the long tunnel yet again. Once they got to the opening of the tunnel, Madam Branche cast the Disillusionment charm on him.

They walked along the deserted corridors, while everyone else was at breakfast. When they finally reached the infirmary, Remus felt like he was going to faint.

"Poor thing. I'm sure I can do something for those injuries. I'll be right back," Madam Branche said as Remus lay down on the bed. She hurried out of the room, and came back moments later carrying potion bottles and a wand.

The first thing she did was give him a potion for his headache and nausea. She then healed his major injuries. She regrettably told him that there was no healing charm for bruises, so that was all she could do.

Remus slept the rest of the day. He woke up at around 6 o'clock, and found that most of this strength had returned. Madam Branche got him a quick dinner, and, after much begging by Remus, sent him back to his dorm for the night.

While the rest of the school ate their dinner, Remus walked the halls back to the Gryffindor common room. He began to wonder what the guys would ask him, and how he should respond. Before he could dwell on it for too long, he reached the portrait hole and entered.

The common room appeared empty, much to his relief. Remus headed right to his dormitory when he walked in. He was stopped however, just before ascending the stairs.

"Evening wolf-boy," said a voice from near the fireplace. Remus spun around so quickly, he almost fell over. Seated in a chair by the fireplace was Alice. **_(A/N: Alice is his cousin people, so she does know about Remus)_**

"Will you shut it!? What if someone hears you?" Remus said, walking over to sit by her. His heart was still pounding from being startled like that.

"No one is here," Alice said, but then became serious, "Really though, how are you?"

"Not that bad anymore. But last night was horrible. Probably because I had never transformed there, there was no scent or anything," Remus said. As he sat down, Alice cringed, seeing the numerous bruises and scrapes still decorating his body.

"Oh," Alice said simply. She was suddenly feeling very sympathetic towards Remus.

"Yeah. But hey, did I miss anything big?" Remus asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Not really. Oh, but Sirius did fall off his chair, braking his arm, and getting a concussion," Alice said, almost as an afterthought. Remus laughed.

"Yeah, I saw him when I was in the hospital wing," Remus replied. Just then, the portrait hole opened, and in walked students coming back from dinner. When James, Sirius, and Peter walked in, they were shocked to see Remus was already back. The boys walked over to him.

"Hey Remus! You are home early!" Sirius asked.

"Yeah I got back during dinner," Remus replied with a shrug.

"Oh, well I hope your mother is well. Oh yeah, guess what Sirius did on Tuesday," James said. Sirius rolled his eyes and Remus held back a laugh.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe, fell off of a chair, got a concussion, and broke his arm," Remus replied. The others stared, thinking he had really guessed that. Alice laughed at their shocked faces.

"I told him about that you guys," Alice said. The others nodded in understanding.

"Hey, wait," James suddenly said, "You guys are cousins, aren't you?" They both nodded, unsure of where this was going, "Then why didn't you visit Remus's mother when she was sick Alice?" Remus paled, but Alice handled it smoothly.

"I wanted to, but Dumbledore wouldn't let me. Some crap about 'immediately family only'," Alice said.

"Well, I think I am going to go get my bag and catch up on some homework," Remus said. He went to stand up, but stumbled and fell. His right leg was throbbing, and he suddenly remembered that Madam Branche had said he had dislocated his knee. Even though she had fixed it, she said it would be rather sore for a few days.

"Woah! Are you okay Remus?" James asked, helping him to his feet. It was then that James noticed the bruises and scrapes all over Remus's arms, legs, and face.

"Oh my God, what happened?!" James asked, shocked. Remus shrugged.

"I fell out of a tree. Kind of stupid, I know," Remus said, just fast enough to be thought of as suspicious.

"You should go to the hospital wing," Peter said. Remus shook his head, and said he had already gone, and she just said there was nothing that could be done about it.

Remus then went up to bed, eager to get out of the attention. Soon everyone followed suit, eager to rest up before the next day, the day of the Slug Club meeting.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Lily woke up Friday morning at 6:45 by some loud bang outside her window. She rushed over to it to see a bird flying slowly around, seemingly dazed. Lily rolled her eyes. She would be willing to guess what bird had just flown into her window. She sighed and tried to fall back asleep, but as she would have to get up in 15 minutes anyway, she didn't really get much more sleep.

If the rude awakening was anything, it was a sign to show how the rest of her day would go. At breakfast she spilled pumpkin juice all over her robes, and in transfiguration, Marlene screwed up her spell– making the needle she was trying to turn to hay start poking Lily.

By the time the day was over, Lily wanted nothing more than to simply go upstairs and sleep, but remembered with dread that she had to go to the Slug Club meeting that night. From what some of the older students had told her, it would be a rather boring event.

When Lily walked out of her dorm into the common room at about ten minutes to six, she saw a number of people leaving, including James and Sirius. Lily figured that they were all going to the Slug Club as well.

She walked out and heard a voice call her name from behind her. She looked around and saw Brighid Potter walking toward her, waving. Lily waved back as Brighid caught up to her.

"Hey! Are you going to Slughorn's party?" Lily aksed.

"You mean the Slug Club? Sure am," Brighid answered. They walked the rest of the way there together, chatting casually.

When they arrived, Brighid went off to see some of her friends, and Lily looked around for someone she knew. She turned around and before she knew what happened she had collided with someone, and ended up lying on the ground with James on top of her.

"Geez, Evans, watch where you are going!" James hissed into her ear.

"What? You are the one on top of me, Potter!" Lily said, squirming under his weight. James smirked.

"Depends on how you look at it. It actually feels like you are on top of me," James said. Lily looked at him for a second, blinking, before screaming at him to get off of her.

James got up, smirking. Lily stood up too and glared at him. Just then Professor Slughorn walked over to them.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked as if genuinely surprised.

"No, we are fine. I just fell," Lily said aware that everyone was looking at her. She quickly walked toward Emmeline Vance, who was laughing insanely on the other side of the room.

Lily kept a low profile the rest of the night, and by the time she crawled into bed, she was ready to die. At least 10 different people talked to her about James falling on top of her. She was certainly ready for her horrendous day to be over, and was glad that the next day was Saturday.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Eight chapters down, about... 15 or so to go! I hope you liked this chapter! And please REVIEW!

**Next Chapter:** You are finally going to figure out what the deal with Professor Avery is! YAY! So review, and I'll update!

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	9. The Watch of Glory

**Year 1: The Legend Begins  
**

**Chapter 9: The Watch of Glory**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything except the Watch of Glory

**A/N: **Here is the next chapter! I've had quite a stressful day (our basement flooded so now the internet is out) so I'm very surprised I managed to get this chapter out. The only reason I did is because I'm at my dad's house and he has internet. Soooo, be grateful that you got this, haha. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon, but no promises because I don't know when our internet is going to start working again.

So, please read and review this chapter!! It's pretty important to the plot, so I hope you like it!

1XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"He's looking at you again, James," Sirius whispered in James's ear. They were in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Professor Avery was once again looking at James.

James groaned and looked up, seeing that Professor Avery's gaze was in fact focused on him. Suddenly Professor Avery turned around and picked up a stack of papers on his desk.

"Overall your essays were pretty good," he was saying, as he began handing the kids in the front row their essays, "James Potter had the highest grade in the class... good job James!" Avery said, walking over to where James was seated and handing him a paper. James took it, frowning, and looked at it.

On the top of the paper was a large red O, and a note written that said, _Excellent James, keep up the good work!_ James sighed, looking over what he had written. He knew he had done really badly on this particular assignment, as he just did it in a History of Magic class the period before it was due. He didn't even have his book with him! And yet he had still gotten a really good grade.

"Something is not right here. Avery is really starting to creep me out," James muttered to Sirius, who was staring angrily at his P paper.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, shoving the paper in his bag.

"Do you remember when I wrote this paper? In History of Magic! I made it all up, I didn't even have my book with me!" James said.

"Maybe he's in love with you," Sirius suggested with a smirk.

"Shut up," James responded, trying to hold in his laughter, "Anyway, I'm going to go talk to him," James said as class ended.

"Alright, I'll see you later then," Sirius said, picking up his bag, "But if he asks you out, run away, teacher/student relationships are against the rules," James hit Sirius playfully on the arm as he laughed.

"I'm just saying..." Sirius muttered as he walked out the door with Remus and Peter.

James cautiously walked up to Professor Avery's desk and cleared his throat to get his attention. Professor Avery looked up and smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his cold grey eyes.

"James, my boy! What can I do for you?" he said. James pulled out the homework paper and showed it to Professor Avery.

"Well, I just had a question about my homework. I felt that I didn't do all that well, but I still got a high grade. I was just wondering why," James said, feeling more and more uncomfortable under the gaze of Professor Avery. When he was done, Professor Avery shook his head, smiling his unnerving smile yet again.

"What are you talking about? This is one of the best papers I have ever read. And believe me, you have deserved every single grade you have received in my class," Professor Avery responded. James just nodded, thinking it was better not to push the subject anymore. He opened his bag and put the paper in it, and turned around to leave. However, he was stopped by Professor Avery.

James turned around sharply to find Professor Avery gripping his bag tightly. James tried to pull away, but Professor Avery opened his bag and seemed to be looking at something.

"Where did you get that?" he asked harshly. James looked down and saw that Professor Avery was pointing at James's watch. James had always been proud of his watch. It was not a wrist watch, but a pocket watch on a long golden chain. The front was bordered in rubies, and there was a carving of a lion on it. When the lid was lifted up, there was another engraving, the letters GG. James had been told his father had given it to him when he was just a child, and that it had been in their family for generations.

James told Professor Avery this, leaving out the fact that it was quite valuable, as he really didn't want it stolen. There was a look of joy on Professor Avery's face after receiving this information, and James thought it looked rather out of place.

"May I see it?" he asked, already reaching a hand out to take it. James sharply pulled away. When his mother had given the watch to him, she had said to be careful of who he showed it to. There would be many people who would want to steal it from him.

"No!" James said, "I...uh... had better get going. I've got class," James said. He grabbed his bag and nearly sprinted out of the room. Running along the halls, James then checked the time. It was 5:05, meaning a study hall period had just started, and he was going to be late. The class used to be broomstick lessons, but had been changed after two weeks, once the kids got a handle on broomstick riding (pun DEFINITELY intended).

He sprinted into the library about 15 minutes late, and took a seat next to Sirius, breathing heavily. Sirius raised an eyebrow at him.

"Where have you been? Better be glad there isn't a teacher in this class, or you would have a detention," Sirius said.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts. It is a really long story," James said. He then went on to explain all that had happened with Professor Avery.

"That is so weird," Sirius said when James was finished.

"I know, he was so..." James started, but was cut off by Sirius.

"No, I mean look at this table, there is huge purple stain on it," Sirius said. Then he looked up at James's face, "Sorry, continue." James sighed, shaking his head.

When class was over, James and Sirius met up with Peter and Remus, and together they headed down to dinner. James filled Remus and Peter in on what had happened before.

"That is odd," Remus said as James and Sirius shoveled food into their mouths.

"I wonder if he is going to try to steal it or something," Peter said. James looked up, his mouth full of mashed potatoes. He hadn't even thought of that.

"I think I am going to go talk to Brighid," James said. He got up and walked over to the section of the table where she was seated with her friends.

"Brighid, come here for a second, I need to talk to you," James said. Brighid looked up at him, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm eating, what do you want?" Brighid said impatiently.

"Just come here, it is really important," James said, shifting uncomfortably under the gaze of her and her friends. Brighid sighed and got up, following James out of the Great Hall, crossing her arms along the way.

"What?" Brighid said, scowling slightly.

"It's about Dad's watch," James said. Brighid's head snapped over to look at James, and he was surprised by her sudden change of heart.

"What about it?" Brighid asked, trying to remain calm. James explained all about how Professor Avery had acted, and that they thought he might try to steal it. When he was finished, Brighid spoke, worry in her voice.

"Okay, um, give me the watch. I'll protect it," Brighid said, holding out her hand. James gave it to her.

"Why is this watch such a big deal to protect? Why is it so special?" James asked, a million more questions forming in his head.

"I'm not the one to answer that. Just forget about this for a while," Brighid said, pocketing the watch and walking back into the Great Hall. James followed her in and walked over to where his friends were seated. He tried to forget about the watch. Now that it is with Brighid, it will surely be much safer.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Lord Voldemort paced among the small circle of Death Eaters, all awaiting the same news he was.

"Avery," Lord Voldemort said. A mat stepped out of the circle, looking at Voldemort, "You tell me you have news," Voldemort continued, as more a statement that a question.

"Yes sir," Avery said, "it's about the boy. As of now, he is already in possession of the watch of glory," There was a slight collective gasp as soon as the words left his mouth, and Voldemort spun around to get a better view of Avery.

"Are you sure?" Voldemort asked. Avery nodded, "Steal it. Bring it to me along with the boy," Voldemort whispered merrily.

"My Lord, will you now be able to..." started a Death Eater, but he was cut off by Voldemort.

"Crucio!" said Voldemort. The death eater withered to the ground, screaming in pain. Voldemort lifted the curse after a few seconds.

"None of you will ever speak out without being spoken to again. And even then...watch what you may reveal," Voldemort said in a dangerously low voice. He then walked out of the chamber, his robes swishing behind him.

Everyone looked out after him, wondering what it was he didn't want said; wondering what secret plans were brewing in his mind.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

There you go, I hope you liked it. Please REVIEW!

Next chapter will be… more stuff with the watch of glory, and a few other things that I can't remember right now because the file is on my other computer and I'm on my laptop… but it's a good chapter, I promise, lol. So REVIEW!

Go!, Go!, Go!,

Click the button that says Go!

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	10. Attack on a Helpless Pillow

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter ten: Attack on a Helpless Pillow**

**Disclaimer: **Yeah so basically I just don't own anything. Okay? Cool.

**A/N: **I am in such a wonderful mood! The sun is shining, the weather is warm, and I'm going to go for a bike ride!! YAY!! (Compared to the horrible temperatures and multitudes of snow Michigan has gotten recently, this is wonderful) So anyway, thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! I really hope you like this chapter! It has another full moon... sadness... so anyway... REVIEW!!! Merci!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"You are going away again?" James asked, looking at Remus as he packed his bag. It was late November, and this was the third time Remus was leaving school this year.

"Yeah. My mum isn't sick this time though, but it is my great-grandfather's 100th birthday, and he really wants me to be there, as he expects to die at any moment," Remus said, hunching over his suitcase so as not to look James in the eye.

"Oh. Tell him I wish him a happy birthday," Sirius said, glancing at James.

"Okay. I'll do that. See you all in a few days," Remus said, leaving the three curious boys behind.

Remus walked down to the hospital wing, beginning to feel sick along the way. He had left a day earlier than he had the months before, so as not to make the others suspicious from his illness.

When he walked into the hospital wing, he was surprised to see that he was not alone.

"Oh, hello Remus. What are you doing here?" Lily asked. She was sitting on a bed, her arm wrapped in bandages, "Alice told me you were going home today."

"I have a little bit of a stomach ache and I decided to stop here quickly before I leave," Remus said, faster than necessary. He dearly hoped he would not ask any questions, so he quickly changed the subject, "So what happened to your arm?" Lily scowled.

"James tripped me on my way back from breakfast about an hour ago, and I fell and broke my arm. Either he didn't notice, or just didn't care, because he didn't do anything about it," Lily said. Remus opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Madam Branche entering the room from her office.

"Alright Lily, I'm almost done darling," Madam Branche said. She froze when she saw Remus, dropping a bottle of potion on the floor. It broke, and Lily let out a small, frightened scream.

"Oh dear! What a mess! I am so sorry Remus, you frightened me. I didn't know you were here," Madam Branche said, repairing the potion bottle and vanishing the spilt potion.

"I'm sorry. I am just here because I am not feeling so good," Remus said.

"Of course. I'll finish up Lily and then be right with you. You can to take a seat on that bed over there for a moment if you like," Madame Branche said. Remus nodded and walked over to the bed, setting his suitcase down as he went. Although he wasn't really going home, he had packed a suitcase anyway. Partly so as not to look suspicious, and partly because he would need a change of clothes and possibly a book to read during his stay over the next 2 days. Madame Branche mended Lily's arm in a jiffy, and sent her on her way, hurrying over to Remus.

Lily left, feeling rather sympathetic for Remus. The poor boy always seemed to be sick. She checked her watch, and saw that it was just about lunch time. She started walking slowly down to the Great Hall, figuring it was a waste to go to the common room first.

She walked in and saw Alice and James were already seated at the Gryffindor table. Everyone else had yet to show up. Lily made her way over to Alice, trying to ignore the fact that she was sitting with James.

"Hey Lily. Where have you been all morning?" Alice asked. Lily smiled sarcastically at being asked that question.

"Funny story that one is. You see, James here found it amusing to trip me this morning after breakfast," Lily said, staring pointedly at James while loading food on her plate.

"Oh come on, all I did was trip you!" James said in protest. Lily rolled her eyes. Did he seriously think that she would be MIA all morning because she was sad that he tripped her? Boys really are stupid sometimes. Actually make that all of the time.

"Yes, but because you tripped me, I broke my arm and had to spend the morning in the hospital wing having my arm mended," Lily said, glaring at James.

"Oops..." James said, grinning guiltily.

Sirius and Peter walked in then, and Marlene and Melanie came in shortly after. When Sirius sad down, he immediately began shoving food in his mouth, just like James was already doing.

"You guys really are pigs. Peter is managing to eat like a normal human being, and I'm sure Remus would be as well if he were here!" Marlene said. She glared at them, mostly James, as she had been there when Lily had broken her arm.

"Where is Remus by the way?" Melanie asked, looking up.

"He went home for his Great-Grandpa's hundredth birthday," Alice said.

"Oh," Melanie said, "But wouldn't that be your Great-Grandpa too?"

"Nope, it's the other side of the family," Alice said smoothly. Marlene started to say something, most likely about the subject at hand, but was stopped as a piece of mashed potato came flying up from Sirius's plate and hit her in the eye.

"Ow! You guys are unbelievable. I bet you couldn't go one day without eating like swine" Marlene said.

"Hey! We don't eat like swine! Maybe like pigs sometimes, but never like swine!" James exclaimed, appearing deeply offended. Everyone else started at him, not even bothering to correct him. Again, boys are dumb.

"But anyway, I'll take that bet!" Sirius said, trying to figure out why he was friends with James in the first place.

"Same here! How much?" James said, swallowing his mouthful of food and looking around at the girls, who were still staring at him.

"Five galleons," Lily said. James glared at her.

"Deal," He said, grabbing her hand and vigorously shaking it.

The rest of the meal was spent with James and Sirius eating very politely and Lily and Marlene trying to coax them into losing their manners. James and Lily were especially determined to win, as both wanted to beat the other very badly.

At the end of lunch, the seven young Gryffindors wandered out to the Entrance Hall, wondering what to do.

"Why don't we go outside for a walk or something," Alice suggested, "It was just starting to snow this morning, I'm sure the grounds will look pretty."

"It's snowing? Are you serious? I love snow! Let's go, let's go!" Lily exclaimed. James rolled his eyes. She always got like this when it snowed. When she was little, she even threw parties for the first snow of the year, and of course his parents made him go to all of them.

"What are we going to do, throw a party?" James asked tauntingly. Lily hit him on the arm.

"Shut up, at least I know what swine is!" Lily responded. That sure seemed to shut him up.

"That does sounds like a good idea. I'll need to go get my cloak though, it's cold outside," Melanie said, shivering for emphasis.

"I agree, so do I. Why don't we all go and get cloaks and then come back here," James said. They all agreed and started walking to Gryffindor tower, the boys trailing slightly behind the girls. Upon arrival at Gryffindor tower, the boys went up to their dorm, the girls doing the same thing.

"I really can't wait until Christmas. Are you all staying here or..." Sirius was saying as they walked up the stairs. However, he trailed off once they had opened the door. All three boys stared, looking around the room in amazement.

The room had been trashed. Completely trashed. Books with pages torn out and ripped robes littered the floor. Most of the mess was around James's bed. His trunk had been opened, and all of it's contents now were spread out all over the floor.

"What happened?!" James said in shock. He picked up his pillow and put it on his bed, discovering that most of its feathers were on the floor, "Who would attack a helpless pillow like this! The evil people in this world..."

"It looks like someone was looking for something," Peter said, noticing that the pockets of all the robes were turned out.

"Yeah! And who do we know who is looking for something of yours?" Sirius said. James thought a moment before catching on.

"No! Avery? I didn't think he would actually do this!" James said, clearly shocked.

"Aren't you really glad you gave the watch to Brighid?" Peter asked. James and Sirius nodded.

"Wait until the girls hear about this!" Sirius said.

"No!" James exclaimed, "Don't tell them, don't tell anyone what happened." James said. Peter and Sirius looked at him questioningly, but decided not to push it. The boys grabbed their cloaks, James brushing feathers off of his, and headed out the doors.

Professor Avery smiled to himself from his position under James's bed. He had been in the dorm when he heard the boys coming up, and quickly hid under the bed. Even though the boys were on to him, Avery now had a lead. He knew where the watch resided... with Brighid Potter.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

AHHH! AVERY IS EVIL! AHH!

Ahem...anyway... there you go! Please please PLEASE review!! The next chapter should be up pretty soon.

Next chapter: CHRISTMAS!! Well kind of. I split Christmas into two chapters, so next chapter is the first part of it. It's a pretty fun chapter. And there is also a little bit more Avery... some Slug club.. it's a pretty packed chapter. Really long too.

So REVIEW and I'll update really soon!


	11. Christmas Cheer's a Comin!

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter Eleven: Christmas Cheer's A coming**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything you recognize.

**A/N:** Here is the next chapter! I really hope you like it. It's relatively Christmasy. And then next chapter is the actual Christmas chapter. So yay! Please read and REVIEW at the end! And also, I have a new one-shot up, in honor of St. Patrick's day, which is TODAY! So you can check out that one too if you feel like it. So read and enjoy!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

_Bertie Bots_

_Drouple's Gum_

_Candy is so fun_

_They're good to eat_

_But not in class_

_The teachers want to teach, HEY!_

"That is probably one of the worst spoofs of Jingle Bells I've heard in my entire life," James said, as he passed a group of ghosts who were singing it.

"What's wrong with it?" Alice asked, "I think it's cute."

"Cute? It's insulting!" Sirius insisted. Lily rolled her eyes.

"How in the world could that song be insulting?"

"Because. They are pretty much saying that we are all stupid enough to think that we are allowed to eat in class. Who would think that?" Sirius said.

"Erm, Sirius? You got a detention in transfiguration yesterday because you were eating ice mice in class..." Remus pointed out.

"Yes, but that wasn't because I didn't know we weren't _allowed_ to, it was simply because I didn't _care_," Sirius said, causing the rest of them to laugh.

"And besides, it doesn't even rhyme. And there are a bunch of extra syllables in there that don't fit," James continued.

"Oh, and I'm sure you could do better?" Lily said skeptically.

"He probably could," Sirius said.

"I personally would love to hear this," Marlene said.

"Well then here I go," James said. He cleared his throat and began to sing, making the song up as he went along.

_"Pranks and blames_

_Quiddich games_

_Filling you with doubt_

_These are all_

_The things that my_

_Life is all about. HEY!"_

James finished singing, and everyone around him was laughing. A few people who were walking down the hallway had stopped to listen to him, and Peter was actually clapping.

"Pretty impressive," Sirius said, "You'll have to teach it to me."

"Um, there really isn't much to it mate," James said. They continued walking, and when they reached their destination, the Great Hall, they sat down at the table for lunch.

It was Monday, and there were only two more weeks until Christmas break started. It had been about a week since James and Sirius came back to find their dorm trashed. James had warned Brighid about it, and she stopped storing the watch in her dorm. She said she found a safe place to keep it- James later found out that meant in her pants pockets with the opening charmed shut so only she could open. James had to admit it was clever.

The young Gryffindors sat down at the Gryffindor table, and they all began to eat their lunch. They joked and laughed, their spirits light since they all knew that only had another two weeks of classes to go through.

"James!" came a sudden yell from across the hall. James looked up and saw Brighid running toward him. Her cheeks were flushed, and her curly black hair was flying out behind her. She stopped in front of him, panting slightly. She looked around the hall, as if she was looking for someone, and when she didn't seem to find him, she let out a breath of relief.

"What's up Brighid?" James asked, confused and a little concern.

"You need to come with me now!" Brighid said. She then grabbed his shirt and yanked him out of his chair.

"Hey, watch it!" James exclaimed.

"What is going on Brighid?" Lily asked, looking up at the girl who had quickly become her mentor at Hogwarts. Not just because she had known her before, but also because she was the top of her class, something Lily was aspiring to.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it. Just a family thing," Brighid said.

James was yanked out of the hall by Brighid, many people looking after them. Unnoticed by all, due to the distraction, Professor Avery slipped into the hall from the door behind the staff table, pulling the sleeve of his robe down over his left arm.

"What's your deal?" James asked as Brighid pulled him along the hallways. She dragged him up the stairs, and when he almost tripped, he convinced her that he was able to walk on his own.

"Where are we going?" James asked, running slightly to keep up with his sister, who had considerably longer legs, and was almost running herself anyway.

"Seventh floor, now just keep up!" Brighid said, turning her head to look at her brother stumbling behind her. When they finally made it to the seventh floor, Brighid stopped short randomly, causing James to bump into her.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, looking at what she was doing. He frowned when he realized that she was standing in front of a blank wall, pacing back and forth.

James sighed, turned around to see if anyone was here to witness this moment of his sister's craziness, and when he looked back he saw that there was suddenly a door where there had been just wall moments before.

"Wh- where did that come from?" James asked as his sister yanked the door open and threw him inside the room it lead to.

Brighid closed the door and saw James was looking around, amazed.

"What is this place?" He said. He looked around and saw two huge couches, a fire place, and a counter piled with food. There were also pictures on all of the walls.

"It's called the room of requirement, and you can get anything you want in here by just requesting it. If I feel the sudden urge to have a giant pink stuffed bear, there it is," Brighid said. She was pointing off into a corner and James turned to see just what she had said, a giant stuffed bear.

"So why are we here?" James said, making a mental note to tell Sirius, Remus, and Peter about his place.

"I needed to talk to you without chance of being overheard," Brighid said, "You know how you said that Avery raided your dormitory about a week ago?" Brighid said. James nodded.

"Well, when I came home today my room was absolutely trashed, and no one knew who did it," James looked shocked.

"Is the watch okay?" He asked worriedly.

"Yes, I had it with me," Brighid said, and James heaved a sigh of relief.

"Oh great, I just remembered I have Defense right after lunch," James said. He suspected that Avery was going to be in a bad mood since he didn't find the watch.

"Listen, James, don't say anything to him that even remotely concerns the watch, and no matter what don't ever be alone in a room with him. We know that he wants the watch, and if he even slightly suspects that you have it with you, I'm fairly sure that he wouldn't hesitate in harming you to get it. I'm thinking of going to Dumbledore about his, but we don't have any actual proof that it's Avery who is doing this," Brighid said, and James nodded obediently.

"And, listen James, I need to tell you something about why this watch is so important," Brighid said. She said an incantation and pulled the watch out of her pocket by its long chain.

BANG! Brighid and James both jumped as the door was thrown open. Into the room came two horny teenagers, deep in a make out session. Brighid shoved the watch in James's hand quickly.

"Take it, James. It's yours not mine, and Mom told me to give it back to you. I'll teach you the spell to charm it in your pocket if you want another time, but for now we had probably just get out of here. The room of requirement is often used by people to snog if there aren't any open broom closets," Brighid said, "I think we should be able to just slip past these guys." The siblings walked out and closed the door behind them to give the kids some privacy. Just then, James's stomach growled loudly, and he realized that he had missed most of lunch.

James and Brighid went their separate ways, and when James got back to the table, he told the guys that he had something to tell them later, the watch creating a small lump in his pocket, reminding him that it was there and in danger.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Avery, have you any news for me?" Voldemort asked, looking around the circle of Death Eaters around him.

"Yes, I do," he said, bowing low to the ground before getting up again, "I searched both of the Potter kid's rooms thoroughly, and still have yet to find the watch. It is possible that one of them is carrying it around with them, as that is what the boy was doing before, but I can't be sure," Avery said. Voldemort nodded.

"Find out. Search their bags, belongings, pockets, do everything you can until we find that watch. You know was well as I do that we need it for our little plan to succeed."

"Yes my Lord," Avery said, bowing and stepping back into the circle. He knew now that he desperately needed to find the watch; he could not continue to let down his master. That could only lead to trouble.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Wow, talk about a long freaking essay! Why in the world would he give us so much homework when its two weeks until Christmas?" Sirius complained to James as they were packing their bags up after Defense Against the Dark Arts class. James had convinced the boys to sit in the back with him because he was a little bit afraid of Professor Avery, and the boys happily complied. As the young Gryffindor boys started to walk out the door, they heard a yell from behind them that made them stop.

"Oh James, could you wait a moment please?" Professor Avery called from his desk. James stopped in the doorway, but hesitated before turning around. He told his friends to wait for him just outside the door and turned around.

"Yes Professor?" James said, turning around and looking at the man before him, while he still stood very close to the door.

"Could you come in a little bit more James? I just want to talk to you about something," James started to walk into the room more but he suddenly remembered what Brighid said. _Don't ever be alone in a room with him_.

"I have to go Professor," James said suddenly before bolting out of the room and almost running smack into Sirius who was waiting outside the door for him.

"Woah, easy there tiger. What was that all about?" Sirius asked as he and James started walking down the hall quickly.

"Avery asked me to stay after again, and I was about to close the door when he got this strange look on his face, and I remembered what Brighid said, about not being in a room alone with him. She said that if he thought I had the watch, he wouldn't think twice about stealing my bag to check it or even hurting me to get in my pockets. It just kind of hit a little to close to home, especially with him looking at me so weird like that." James explained.

"Oh wow. Why in the world does he want that watch so bad?" Sirius said.

"I've been thinking about that," James responded, "And I was thinking that maybe he doesn't want the watch for himself, but rather he is getting it for someone else. I mean it's a Potter family heirloom, what possible use could he have for it? I mean he surely has his own heirlooms from his family, right?"

"But then you would have the question of who else would want it so badly, unless it is a weird long lost relative. But honestly, what are the odds of that?" Sirius replied.

"I don't know," James said. He and Sirius walked the rest of the way in silence, and James gave the password when they reached the portrait hole. All of the first year Gryffindors had a break then, and when they opened the portrait hole they saw Remus and Peter sitting in armchairs by the fire, waiting for them.

After checking that the girls were no where in the room, James began to fill the other two boys in on the latest goings on with Avery and the watch.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Excellent class today kids, really. Make sure you clean up before you leave for dinner. Oh, and James, Lily, Sirius, Alice, Remus and Severus, could you please stay after for a few minutes?" Slughorn said after potions class the next day. The six kids he called headed up to his desk after class was over, and Lily had a feeling that it had something to do with the Slug Club, as these were the people who had gone before, with the exception of Alice.

"I just want to let you kids know that I am having a Christmas get together for the Slug Club this Friday night," Slughorn said, confirming Lily's suspicions. Slughorn went on to explain to Alice what the Slug Club was, but as Lily had complained to her about what happened to James at the last one, she already knew.

"That is so cool that I'm invited this time. And we can bring friends, so Melanie and Marlene can come to," Alice said to Lily as they walked down the hall to their next class, Charms.

In Charms class they continued to work on the charm they had been doing before– the color change charm. So far only Lily and Remus had managed to turn their apples purple.

When Friday night arrived that week, it was to find the four Gryffindor first year girls in their dorm, waiting for the Slug Club meeting to begin.

"So, what do we do at this thing?" Alice asked.

"I've already told you– nothing. We sit around, mingle, talk to people, drink nasty punch, and go home after about 2 hours," Lily said, casually flipping through a copy of _Preteen Witch Weekly._

"But... there has to be more to it than that," Alice insisted.

"Believe me, there isn't," Lily replied, looking up from her magazine to gaze at her friend.

"But then... why would he have it in the first place? Surely we would do something?" Alice asked again, causing everyone to groan.

"Nope..." Lily said again, focusing back on her magazine. Alice frowned and spent the next 30 minutes thinking of what they could be doing at the Slug Club meeting.

When it was time for them to leave, they all walked down the steps into the common room, Melanie and Marlene with them, as Lily and Alice had invited them as their guests. Alice walked ahead excitedly, and Lily smiled to herself, eager to see the look on the young girls face when she finally realized there was actually nothing to do at the Slug Club.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Okay, another chapter down! So now James has the watch... will Avery get it? Will James be able to protect it? Found out next time! REVIEW and I'll update faster!!

Next chapter: The kids go home for Christmas, all except for Sirius and Marlene. Basically it's just a fun, filler chapter I think. But it's suuuuper long! So REVIEW!!!


	12. Happy Christmas!

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter twelve: Happy Christmas!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything you recognize.

**A/N: **So this is the last one of my pre-written chapters. I'm working on chapter 13 but it's not ready yet. No promises on when I'll get the next chapter up, but hopefully it won't be too long of a wait. I'm aiming for next Saturday just to keep up the tradition, but again no promises. But anyway, I really hope you like this chapter! Personally I really like it. It's fun. So yeah... please reveiw at the end!

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"Here is your present mate," James said, handing Sirius a wrapped present. Remus and Peter followed suit. They were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating their breakfasts. James, Remus, and Peter were going to be going home for Christmas right after breakfast, so they were giving Sirius his presents now.

"I wish at least one of you was going to be staying, Christmas alone really isn't much fun..." Sirius said, picking at his eggs.

"I know mate. I would stay, but my mom always throws this annual Christmas party and I have to be there. But believe me I would rather be here, especially since Evans is going to be at the stupid party," James said.

"I don't think she is really that bad," Remus said.

"Well, we kind of have a history..." James said. Remus shrugged.

"I heard that Marlene is staying though," Peter said. Sirius shrugged, as he hadn't really gotten to know Marlene very well as of yet.

The boys finished eating their meal, and about ten minutes later they heard the voice of Professor Slughorn magnified through the hall.

"All students who are leaving for Christmas must be on the train in the next ten minutes, as that is when it will be leaving. All students to the train,"

"We had better go then," James said, putting his fork down on his plate. Sirius nodded gloomily and watched his friends walk off, each levitating their trunks in front of them. As it turned out, that really was a good spell to learn first.

Sirius watched as Lily, Melanie, and Alice walked off too, and waved to Marlene, who was also sitting alone now. She smiled and walked over to him.

"You staying here too?" She asked. Sirius nodded.

"Yep," they finished eating their breakfasts and headed back up to Gryffindor tower together. On the way there, they talked about everything under the sun, from school work to the joys of pranking. As it turned out, Marlene was a prankster as well.

"We definitely need to plan a prank over this break," Sirius said as they walked through the portrait hole and sat down on the couch in front of the fire. Marlene agreed and got out a piece of paper. Together they started brainstorming and Marlene wrote the ideas down on the paper. Soon, they had concocted a wonderful prank... now the only step left was to find an unsuspecting victim to pull it on...

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"Alice!" Came a call to Lily's left. She turned to see a woman waving, presumably her friend's mother. Alice smiled and waved back.

"Hi Remus," she said, and Remus waved too. He had just walked up with James and Peter, who were now standing next to the girls on the platform.

"Hi Aunty," Remus answered.

"I guess I'll be going then. See you when school starts again. Happy Holidays," Alice said, giving Lily and Melanie each a hug good bye.

"Bye, Merry Chrismas," Lily responded.

"I'll see you on Christmas, Remus," Alice said, turning her attention to her cousin.

"No, you won't," Remus said before he could think to stop himself.

"Wha... oh. Oh, right, sorry. Well, I'll uh, I'll see you when we get back then," Alice said, casting a wary glace at the others on the platform. She gave him a comforting smile and a hug before walking off. James frowned.

"What was that about?" he asked, looking after Alice's retreating form.

"Nothing, it's just that um, we usually see each other on Christmas, being cousins and all, but this year we won't. So, um, yeah, I think I see my mom over there, so I'll see you guys after break," Remus said, scurrying off in a random direction.

James frowned as he watched his friend rush off, but when he looked back to his friends he saw that none of them seemed to notice it much, as they were all just busy looking for their parents.

"Oh, there is my mom!" Lily said suddenly, breaking James from his thoughts. He looked in the direction she was pointing and saw with horror that his mom was with hers.

"Mine too... I'll see you later Pete," James said, bidding his friend farewell and following Lily over to where their parents stood.

"Hi James," his mom said, pulling him into a tight hug. James hugged her back smiling. When he released her, he felt another pair of arms throw themselves around his waist. He turned to see Jack's head of messy black hair. James smiled and hugged his little brother back.

"Miss me?" he asked, smiling. Jack nodded.

"The house was much too quiet," he said.

"It's good to see you again James," Mrs. Evans said, and James responded that is was good to see her again as well.

"Where's Petunia?" Lily asked, just realizing that part of her family was absent, "And Dad too?"

"Oh, Petunia wasn't feeling so good, so she stayed home with Dad," Mrs. Evans said. Lily nodded, getting a feeling that sickness had nothing to do with the reason why Petunia hadn't come.

"Where in the world is your sister? She is never this late," Mrs. Potter said, scanning the crowd of students for any sign of Brighid. James and Lily looked for her too, and soon James started snickering, having located her.

"I think I found out why she is late Mom," James said. He pointed his hand over to where Brighid was. She was leaning against a stone pillar, kissing a boy.

"Oh for heavens sake," Mrs. Potter huffed.

"I can go get them if you want Mom!" Jack said, eager to be the annoying little sibling.

"No, no, that's okay," Mrs. Potter said, putting a hand on Jack's shoulder. They waited for a few moments, and soon Brighid came walking over to where they were all standing.

"Hi everyone!" She said. Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Potter both looked at her with knowing looks, and James had to work to suppress his laughter. Lily just rolled her eyes and James's childish behavior.

"What?" Brighid asked.

"Nothing honey," Mrs. Potter responded, "Well, since we are going to the same place anyway, we only took one car. So let's go!" the four kids followed their mothers through the platform and over to where a minivan was parked. They all piled in the car, and James ended up sitting squished between Lily and Brighid in the backseat.

"Why were they all looking at me earlier?" Brighid muttered to her brother, who grinned.

"I'm going to give you a bit of advice. Next time you want to kiss a boy, don't do it where your mom can see," James said.

"What? They saw me?" Brighid whispered urgently. James nodded. As if on cue, Mrs. Potter began talking from the front seat.

"So, Brighid, who was that handsome boy you were with?" she asked, her eyes sparkling angelically. Brighid moaned.

"Moommmm," she said burying her face in her hands. James smirked and even Lily had trouble holding back a giggle. The rest of the ride was filled with many remarks about Brighid kissing the boy, and when they finally reached their homes, Brighid got right out of the car and stormed up to her room.

"This family is so infuriating!" she yelled after her, right before they heard a door slam.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Jeez, we have been waiting here for hours it seems," Marlene moaned. Sirius shushed her and turned his attention back to the portrait at the entrance of the Slytherin common room.

"You have to be patient. I'm sure someone is going to be coming out soon," Sirius responded. Marlene rolled her eyes and slid down onto the floor to sit with her back against the cold stone wall.

"I don't think anyone is coming..." Marlene said after about five more minutes, "Maybe everyone went home." Sirius hushed her again and she crossed her arms. It was a few days after the start of break, and after much careful planning the two mischief makers were ready to pull their first prank together.

Suddenly the portrait hole opened, and out walked three Slytherins. There were two boys in front, each who looked to be about in their 4th or 5th year, and another boy was lagging behind them.

"Keep up, Crabbe! Man, first years are slow," one of the older boys said. He had blonde hair that reached almost to his shoulders, and had a cold, mean look in his gray eyes.

"Excellent," Sirius said, grinning triumphantly. He took out his wand and said an incantation. Soon, all of the boy's hair started growing like mad.

"Aghh! What is happening?" The other older boy exclaimed, grabbing fistfulls of his now shoulder length hair in his hands.

"I don't know! Fix it Nott!" Said the boy with the blonde hair. Since his hair was already long to begin with, it was now nearing his lower back.

"How?" Asked the boy called Nott.

"Let's go to the hospital!" suggested the first year named Crabbe. The others nodded and sped out of the dungeons, trying not to trip on the hair that was now reaching the floor.

Sirius and Marlene burst into laughter as the Slytherins retreated. Sirius fell to the floor and Marlene was clutching a stitch in her side.

"That was brilliant," she gasped.

"Agreed," Sirius said, pocketing his wand and standing up. They walked out from behind the stone pillar and turned to walk up the stairs to the entrance hall. However, they were stopped by someone behind them.

"Hello Black," came a cold voice from the portrait hole. Sirius and Marlene spun around to see Severus Snape standing there, looking at them viciously.

"Shove off Snape," Sirius said.

"What's wrong? Just angry because your Mommy didn't want you home for Christmas? Tut tut, poor dear," Snape said. Sirius gritted his teeth, but stayed put. It took every ounce of self control in his body not to lunge at Snape but he kept his actions at bay.

"Shut up," Sirius said dangerously, but Snape didn't stop there.

"I can't say I don't blame her. I wouldn't want to talk to you either if you were my family. Espeically when you hang around with mudbloods like you do..." Snape said, nodding his head at Marlene. Sirius couldn't take it anymore, and he whipped out his wand and sent a jelly-legs curse at Snape.

"Don't call her or anyone else that again!" Sirius yelled. Snape took out his wand but before he could do anything to Sirius, Marlene was dragging him up the stairs and out of the dungeons.

"He's a git," Sirius muttered angrily as he walked up the stairs with Marlene.

"Yeah, he is, but you can't let him get to you like that. It's just letting him win, and I know you don't want him to win," Marlene said. Sirius crossed his arms over his chest and muttered something incomprehensible.

"Come on, let's just go back to the common room and bask in the glory of our prank a little bit more," Marlene said, trying to cheer Sirius up. He smiled a bit and chatted about the prank the rest of the way up to Gryffindor Tower.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"Mom, my Christmas sweater doesn't fit anymore!" Lily yelled to her mother as she stood in her room, looking at her favorite sweater that was now a few inches too short in the sleeves and middle region.

"What, Lily?" her mom asked, walking into the room. She looked at her daughter in her too-small-sweater and sighed.

"You must have grown like a weed while at Hogwarts," she said. She shook her head, "I guess you will just have to find something else to wear," Lily groaned in frustration, as she loved this sweater, but took it off all the same and looked in her closet for something red or green that she could make presentable for a Christmas party.

After about 10 minutes of searching she finally decided on a plain red long sleeve shirt. There was nothing special about it really, but at least it was color appropriate. Lily emerged from her room, pulling her fancy black miniskirt down, and was almost hit in the head by a flying stiletto.

"Watch it Petunia!" Lily yelled hotly into her sister's room. Petunia emerged from her room and glared at Lily.

"I'm trying to find my black flats. Do you have any idea where they went?" Petunia said, looking at Lily pointedly.

"Why would I take your shoes? They would never fit me, your feet are humongous!" Lily said. Petunia glared at her and walked back into her room, promptly slamming the door in her face.

"Girls, try to get along! It's two days before Christmas!" Mr. Evans's voice was heard coming from his room. Lily rolled her eyes and walked downstairs to sit on the couch. She waited for about 10 minutes before she heard her mom coming down the stairs.

"Lily, grab your coat, we are leaving soon," Mrs. Evans said. Lily got up from the couch and sluggishly walked over to the coat rack. She never had fun at the Potter's Christmas parties. There was a small chance that Melanie would be invited, since she had been at Potter's birthday party, but she doubted it, as Lily had never seen her at a Christmas Party before.

The Evans family briskly walked down the sidewalk towards the Potter's house, all clutching their coats tightly around themselves in the cold night air.

"This party better not go too late. I've had way more James Potter lately than I can handle," Lily muttered to her mom.

"Lily, I want you to be nice to him tonight," her mother warned her.

"I will if he is. But if he is mean to me, I'm going to be mean right back!" Lily said stubbornly as they started to head up the pathway.

"Lily," Mrs. Evans said warningly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be nice," Lily muttered as Mr. Evans rang the bell. The door opened a few moments later to Mrs. Potter's smiling face.

"Hello! It's so wonderful to see you all!" Mrs. Potter said, leading them into her house. Lily smiled, looking around at the beautifully decorated interior and smelling the scent of cinnamon. She heard yelling from the other room, however, and her mood was quickly spoiled as she saw James enter the room.

"Shut up James!" Brighid yelled, running away from her brother who was chasing her.

"I'm serious!" James said.

"Mom! Did you invite my friend Timmy to the party?!" Brighid asked Mrs. Potter, who was in the foyer taking the Evans's coats.

"Who dear?" Mrs. Potter asked distractedly as she tried to balance all four coats.

"The boy that... my friend from the platform," Brighid said. Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes.

"No, I didn't. James is just trying to get you upset, you should know that by now," Mrs. Potter responded.

"You are dead James!" Brighid said, running into the den, where James was hiding behind the couch. Lily laughed and walked into the den, ready to see if Brighid was actually going to follow through with her word and kill James.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

"IT'S CHRISTMAS! IT'S CHRISTMAS! COME ON, GET UP, IT'S CHRISTMAS!" Came a yell from downstairs. Marlene rolled over, looking blearily around the room.

"Come on, get up! Today is Christmas!" She heard Sirius yell again. Marlene looked at the clock and received a shock.

"Sirius! It's 6:00! I don't even get up this early for classes!" Marlene yelled down to him, laying back down and pulling her covers tightly around her.

"But it's CHRISTMAS!" Sirius yelled up to her again, "Now get down here!"

"Make me!" Marlene screamed childishly. She listened, and heard footsteps running over to her staircase, beginning to ascend them. However, after a few moments she heard a scream followed by a thud.

Marlene got out of bed, confused, and walked out of her dorm. She looked down where the stairs were supposed to be, and saw Sirius laying in a crumpled heap on the floor, and instead of stairs she found a slide.

"What happened?" Marlene asked, sliding down the side and landing next to him.

"I have no idea. I just started going up the stairs and then they turned into a slide and I fell down," Sirius said.

"Hmm..." Marlene muttered, looking at the stairs.

"Oh well. At least it got you up, didn't it?" Sirius said, smirking. Marlene stared at him before sighing in frustration.

"Alright, fine, presents. But THEN! I am going back to bed!" Marlene growled, walking over to a couch in front of the tree in the common room.

"Here, these ones are for you. And these are mine," Sirius said, handing her a stack of presents and keeping the other for himself.

"You already sorted the presents?" Marlene asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well yeah. I've been up since 5:30 after all," Sirius said. Marlene's eyes widened, looking at him like he was crazy as he sat next to her on the couch.

"I am in a room with a psycho..." Marlene said, causing Sirius to laugh.

"Well, come on then, let's open our presents!" Sirius exclaimed. Marlene grinned and the two 11 year olds began ripping the paper off of their presents.

Marlene had gotten a book from Alice, mountains of assorted candy from Melanie, and some muggle things from Lily. Since they were both muggleborns, Lily had bought muggle things for Marlene when she returned home and owled them back up to the school.

Sirius had gotten a quddich book from James, and all kinds of food from Peter. Remus had given him a gag gift– a copy of the forbidden items that could be found in Filch's office. He had also given him a new pair of dragon hide gloves, since Sirius had dropped him in a girls toilet (don't ask...) and had been too afraid to go back and get them.

Soon there was only one present left to be opened.

"Who is it from?" Marlene asked, putting aside her gifts and looking at the only wrapped present left.

"My parents... I really don't want to know what they got me, after getting into Gryffindor and everything," Sirius said.

"Well, I think you should open it. At least you got a present from your parents," Marlene said, trying to fake a smile. It was then that Sirius looked around and saw that she hadn't in fact gotten a present from her parents.

"Okay, I'll open it," Sirius said. He pulled back the wrapping paper apprehensively, afraid that there would be some kind of dark magic object that they had sent him.

However, when he pulled back the paper he found... a book. Nothing magical or mysterious about it. Just a book entitled _Blood Traitors of the 19th Century– What Happens When Wizards Mingle with Muggles. _

"Oh, that's lovely," Sirius snorted, tossing the book on the table and making a mental note to burn it later.

"How thoughtful..." Marlene says sarcastically.

"Oh yeah, the Blacks are the most thoughtful people you'll ever meet," Sirius responded, matching her sarcasm.

"So is that the reason you didn't go home? Because your family is a bunch of nutcases?" Marlene asked. Sirius chuckled.

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up. My home life has never been too great, but now that I've become a Gryffindor I shudder to think what they'd do to me," Sirius answered. Marlene nodded sympathetically.

"What about you? Why didn't you go home?" Sirius asked, simply for the purpose of changing the topic as it was a bit of a touchy subject. However, he noticed that when he said that, Marlene's face got kind of dark and sad.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Sirius quickly added, but Marlene shook her head.

"No, it's okay. It's just that... my mom died about 3 years ago, leaving my dad to take care of my 5 sisters and I... so I just thought that I would lighten the load on him, so instead of having to deal with 6 girls, he only has 5. Plus, sometimes he... drinks kind of a lot... and I just wasn't really in the mood to see that," Marlene answered, looking down.

"I'm so sorry," Sirius answered, "Are any of your sisters here?"

"No, they are all younger than I am except for Olivia. She's two years older, she just never got a letter," Marlene answered.

"I am so sorry," Sirius said, truly sympathetic. There are few things people can do without ending up liking each other at the end of it. Knocking out a twleve-foot mountain troll in a girl's lavatory may be one of them... but so apparently is sharing your unfortunate family situation, for since that Christmas night, Sirius and Marlene had a kind of bond.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Hee hee... did you guys like that ending? I dunno if you noticed, but the end paragraph is based off of the last page of chapter 10 in book 1, after the trio fights the mountain troll. Page 132 in the UK version... not sure about the US version, because ironically enough, I don't know where my US books are, so I only have my UK books at the moment, lol.

So... yeah... I hope you guys all liked this chapter! REVIEW!

Next Chapter: The chapter you have all been waiting for! Involves James, Remus, and his secret! GASP! Will Remus's cover be blown? What do you think? Review and tell me, and I'll try to update as soon as I can!


	13. Secrets Spilled

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter Thirteen: Secrets Spilled**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything you recognize, no matter how much I wish it were so.

**A/N: **Yeahhh hi people! Here is the next chapter! Sorry it took a little bit longer than usual, but I had to finish writing this chapter. BUT I'm off for spring break this week, so hopefully I should be able to write some more and have the next chapter up by next Saturday. I dunno tho, but I'll try! So anyway, read and review! And I really hope you like it!

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Remus sat up weakly, his head pounding against the inside of his skull. The sun shone through the small window near the top of the wall. He was in the basement of his childhood home, and it was Boxing day. Christmas night had been a full moon, so even though he had been sane when he had woken up on Christmas morning, there wasn't the amount of excitement there should be due to the fact that he was sick.

He slowly stood up and walked over to the staircase and pulled a large rope. The sound of a ringing bell rang throughout the house, and Remus stopped after a few seconds. This was the signal to his parents that his transformation was over and it was safe for him to come back up the stairs. About a minute or two later, he heard his mom's voice call through the door to him.

"Remus, honey?" she said.

"Yes, mom," Remus called back up to her, standing up from the spot on the floor where he had been sitting while he waited for his mom to come.

Mrs. Lupin opened the door and peered cautiously around at her son. He walked up the stairs and stepped into his mother's warm embrace. He pulled back after a bit and turned to walk fully out of the basement.

"Are you hungry, Remus?" his mother asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Starved, but I'm a little tired right now," Remus said, collapsing on the couch in the next room.

"Well I'll cook you some food for you to eat when you wake up," Mrs. Lupin said. Remus nodded tiredly before laying back on the couch and falling asleep almost instantly. Mrs. Lupin watched her son sleep, smiling lightly. She knew it wasn't fair that he had to suffer like this, and it broke her heart to see her son in such pain.

XOxoXOxoXOxoXO

Alice looked around the multitude of students that crowded the platform, looking for her cousin. She knew that Christmas night had been a full moon, and she wanted to make sure that Remus was okay and that he had gotten her present.

"Alice!" came a yell, and she turned around to see Lily running towards her. The young girls embraced quickly and began talking about their Christmases, Alice temporarily forgetting her search for Remus.

A whistle blew, and Lily and Alice hurried for the train, not eager to be left behind. They found a compartment and put their stuff in it.

"Do you want to go look for Melanie?" Lily asked. Alice nodded and the two girls set off to walk around the Hogwarts express to search for their friend. They found here a few minutes later sitting a compartment with Michelle Weasley. Lily and Alice sat down, but Alice had a hard time concentrating on the conversation they were having. The whole time she was thinking about Remus, and hoping that he was alright.

When they finally reached Hogwarts, the four first years walked over to the horseless carriages and picked one.

"Is there going to be another feast like there was on the first night?" Lily asked, as she was very hungry.

"My brother told me there isn't a big feast, he graduated last year, but we did make it back in time for dinner," Michelle answered.

"Good," Lily said gratefully, her stomach giving a loud rumble. The other three girls laughed and Lily blushed, embarrassed. Once the horseless carriages reached the front doors of Hogwarts, the girls jumped out and hurried inside, pulling their cloaks tightly around themselves against the cold night air. Lily, Melanie, and Michelle began to walk towards the Great Hall, but Alice stopped.

"Aren't you coming?" Lily asked.

"Nah, I'm not really very hungry. Plus I need to, uh, get something from upstairs. I'll just see you guys after dinner," Alice said.

"But don't you want to see Marlene? She's already at the table," Melanie said.

"I'll just see her when you guys come up after dinner. I gotta go now," Alice said, starting up the stairs. Lily shrugged and walked into the Great Hall, shrugging off her friend's peculiar behavior.

Alice walked through the Hogwarts corridors quickly. When she reached the Gryffindor tower she said the password and walked inside, collapsing on a couch by the fire. She really hoped that she hadn't been acting too suspicious, and that Lily and Melanie didn't think too much into her actions. Suddenly she heard the portrait hole open and Remus walked inside.

"Hi," he said, walking over to the couch and sitting down next to her.

"Hey. How are you?" Alice asked.

"I'm alright now, but..."

"But...?"

"But transformations on Christmas really suck," Remus finished.

"Aw, I'm sorry," Alice said sympathetically. Remus just shrugged.

"Yeah, well, that's just the stuff I have to deal with being a werewolf," Remus said, faking a carefree tone, even though Alice could tell that he was upset.

Suddenly they heard a loud closing of the portrait hole, and Remus and Alice both jumped up, snapping their heads towards the portrait hole. What they saw made each of their hearts skip a beat. James Potter was standing in front of the portrait hole with a shocked look on his face.

"Remus?" James asked weakly. Remus looked down at his feet, ashamed, and Alice tried to make up a lame excuse quickly.

"I... we were just... uh..." Alice said, but for once she couldn't think of something to say to cover up for a slip about Remus.

"Wow..." James said, temporarily incapable of saying anything else, "This all kind of makes sense... is this why you were missing so much school?" However, Remus didn't answer.

"Listen James, you don't know what you're talking about..." Alice started to say, but Remus cut her off.

"No, it's fine. I was stupid for thinking that I could ever be normal. I know you hate me now and you are probably afraid of me, so I'm just going to go pack my stuff now and be off..." Remus said, still looking more or less at his shoes.

"Remus, what are you talking about?" James said, thoroughly confused. Remus slowly looked up from his shoes to look at James.

"What?"

"I don't hate you, why would I?" James said.

"Be-Because I'm... because of what I'm..." Remus stuttered out through his surprise. Alice was also shocked, and the two stood there staring at James with mouths open.

"Let me get this straight," Alice said, "You are telling me that you don't care that Remus is a werewolf?"

"Well... I mean Dumbledore isn't an idiot. If he let Remus into the school, this situation is obviously under control. Besides, I mean it's only one night a month, right?" James said.

"You have a heart of gold, James Potter," Alice said, very pleased that James wasn't going to make a big deal out of her cousin's condition, "And you're lucky too, because if you had made a commotion about this, I would have beaten you up. And I would have won," Alice said. James gulped slightly, knowing that his was probably true. Alice seemed to be very protective of Remus.

"Thanks James," Remus said, "Just promise me you won't tell the other guys,"

"Oh, I won't," James said. Remus sighed in relief, "But you will," Remus gasped and shook his head slightly.

"No. What are the odds that the others are going to take it as well as you did? What if Peter freaks out or something?" Remus asked worriedly. James thought for a moment before answering.

"Sirius is a good guy, I'm sure he's not going to make a fuss. He may be crazy sometimes, but he still defied his family and all their absurd views, and that's good enough for me," James said firmly. Remus nodded in agreement, but frowned.

"And Peter?" Remus said. James frowned too. Peter was sometimes a mystery to the other three boys. He was the kind of person who didn't seem to have to much of an opinion on anything... he was just kind of there. But then suddenly it hit James like a ton of bricks.

"Peter is a follower. If Sirius and I are okay with it, he will be too," James said. Remus nodded, knowing that was probably incredibly true.

Alice agreed that the plan sounded good, and the three first years went over to sit down on a couch by the fireplace. Remus for once wasn't incredibly tired, as it was about a week and a half after the last full moon, and he joked around with his friend and cousin with a free conscience. He knew that it was probably better that his friends would know about his condition, but he was still nervous about what they would say.

When dinner was over, students started filing back into the common room, happy to be back at Hogwarts after the holidays. When Sirius and Peter came in, they spotted Remus and James sitting together on a couch (Alice had gotten up to say hello to Marlene) and they headed over.

"Hey, why weren't you guys at dinner?" Sirius asked.

"Um... we were..." Remus said, looking briefly at James, who nodded curtly, "Uh, can you guys come upstairs for a sec? I gotta tell you something."

"Sure..." Sirius replied, confused. The four boys walked up the stairs with Remus in the lead. When they reached the dorms, Remus sat down on his bed and looked at the three boys in front of him.

"So what is it?" Peter asked. Remus looked between Sirius and Peter, then looked to James, who nodded encouragingly. Remus took a deep breath and decided to just jump into it face first.

"Well, you know how I go away every month?" Remus said. They both nodded, "Well... my mom isn't really sick. And my great-grandpa really didn't have a birthday party... you see..."Remus trailed off.

"What?" Sirius urged gently. He sensed there was something wrong, and he was waiting patiently to find out what it was.

"Well... I'm kind of... a... a w-werewolf," Remus stuttered softly, looking down at the ground. His statement was met with complete silence. When he dared to look back up again, he saw that Peter was looking completely shocked and a little bit scared, and Sirius was looking almost confused. Sirius was the first to speak.

"Is that why you always seem sick when you go away?" Sirius asked. Remus nodded, "Why..."

"I know, why didn't I tell you," Remus said, cutting him off, "I guess..."

"No, I was going to ask why did you tell us. If it was me I would have taken it to my grave," Sirius said.

"Well, James overheard me talking to Alice about it, and he convinced me to tell you guys too," Remus said.

"How you doing, Peter?" James asked his friend, realizing that the boy hadn't said anything since Remus had dropped the bomb.

"Uh...I-I-I..." Peter stuttered out. Remus looked down ashamed. He should have known better than to expect all three of the boys would have taken it well.

"Peter, listen to me. You better not make a big deal out of this, or I'll..." James started, but Remus cut him off.

"I-I won't. My g-grandpa w-was one t-t-too," Peter said.

"Then why are you stuttering?" Remus asked, shocked to hear that Peter actually knew someone who was a werewolf before hand.

"Th-there's a sp-spider on y-your arm. I hate sp-spiders," Peter said. Remus looked down to see that there was in fact a spider on his arm, and grinned before flicking it off. Soon all of the other boys were laughing as well, even Peter.

The boys spent the rest of the night in their dorm, just hanging out. James and Remus got hungry at one point, having skipped dinner, so all of the boys got out the treats they had gotten for Christmas and they ate them together. Remus looked around the three boys sitting beside him and smiled in contentment. For the thousandth time since he came to Hogwarts, he felt like he truly belonged. And while that was a wonderful feeling for anyone, but for a werewolf it was pure magic.

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Well, the cat's outta the bag now, right? I don't know if Peter actually had a relative who was a werewolf, but I figured that he wouldn't be able to accept Remus if he didn't know another werewolf, just because that's kind of how Peter is. Yeah, so anyway, I hope you liked it! And please REVIEW!!


	14. Frightening Realizations

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter fourteen: Frightening Realizations**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything that you recognize.

**A/N: **Hey everyone! I really wanted to get this update up today, so I was up until like 1:45 last night finishing it up. Plus my internet was being really screwed up, so you guys are lucky you are getting this! But next weekend I'm going to be out of town and I'm like 90 positive the hotel we are going to be at won't have internet, so it's going to be at least two weeks until I update again. BUT I should have time to write, so the next chapter should be up in two weeks.

ANYWAY… I hope you guys liked this chapter! It's pretty important, so… yeah. And please don't forget to REVIEW!!

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"Five months," hissed a cold voice that seemed to freeze the air in the dark chamber they were in, "five months and you still have nothing to show for your effort."

"I am sorry Lord," said another man, who was bowed down on his knees in front of his master.

"It shouldn't be that hard, Avery!" Yelled Voldemort, whipping out his wand in frustration.

"I know, master, and I'm sorry," Avery said, "but the two kids keep switching ownership of the watch. I have checked both of their dorms and tried several times to search the children themselves, but nothing is coming of it."

"They're just kids, dammit! Just corner one of them after a lesson and imperio them into giving it to you!" Voldemort yelled.

"Yes master. You are right. I'll try harder." Avery vowed.

"You better, or our next meeting will not go as smoothly as this one has," Voldemort said. Avery bowed another time before exiting the room as quickly as he could.

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"Do you think he's even going to come?" James asied Sirius. Sirius shrugged, looking down at a piece of parchment that he was doodling on.

They were sitting in Professor Avery's room, along with the rest of the other Gryffindor and Ravenclaw 1st years. The only thing missing was Professor Avery. It was fifteen minutes after the class was supposed to start, and there was still no professor.

"But where do you suppose he is?" James asked. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Why does it matter?" Sirius asked, glancing up from his drawing to look at his best friend.

"I dunno. But Professor Avery always makes me kind of... jumpy. And besides, for all I know he isn't here because he is busy tearing up my dorm room again," James said. Sirius nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I get what you mean," Sirius said.

"Isn't there a rule that if the teacher doesn't show we don't have class?" Matty Gilkens, a Ravenclaw, wondered aloud.

"Wouldn't that be nice...I didn't finish that essay," Mike, Matty's twin, responded. Everyone in the room chuckled at this.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and the door was blasted open. Professor Avery stormed into the room and everyone jumped in surprise. Avery had a somewhat deranged look on his face and the sleeves of his robes were pushed up past his elbows.

"Sorry I'm late everyone!" He said, trying and failing to sound cheerful, "I had a little appointment that ran late..."

"Appointment?" James whispered to Sirius disbelievingly. However, Sirius wasn't paying attention to what James was saying. Instead, Sirius was staring at Professor Avery, his eyes wide with shock.

"Sirius, what's up?" Remus asked, who had also noticed his strange behavior. Sirius shook his head, and told them that he would tell them later.

Since Professor Avery had been so late, they didn't get very much done in the remaining time. Luckily for Mike, Avery forgot to collect the essays. However, throughout the lesson, Sirius didn't say much of anything. When the lesson was finally over, James and his friends were the first ones out the door. This was partly because they were eager to see what Sirius was going to say, and partly because James didn't want to risk getting asked to stay late again.

"So what was up during the lesson today?" James asked. The four boys were sitting in their dorm as they had a break at the moment, but Sirius looked around warily before he answered, as if making sure there were no eavesdroppers.

"Okay, well you know how Avery had the sleeves of his robes pulled up?" Sirius said. The others nodded in confusion, "Well, did any of you see what he had on his left arm?

"No, what? Needle marks?" James joked. Sirius let out a half-hearted laugh.

"No... he had the dark mark..." Sirius said. James's eyes flew open in shock. However, Remus and Peter didn't understand like James did.

"What's that?" Peter asked.

"You guys know who Voldemort is right?" Sirius asked. Remus and Peter nodded. Even though Peter was a muggleborn he had learned about the dark wizard who was constantly gaining power.

"The Dark Mark is... his mark," Sirius continued to explain, "And when people have it tattooed on their forearm, it means that they are one of his followers." Now Remus and Peter were sharing the shock that James and Sirius were already experiencing.

"So you guys know what this must mean, right?" James said.

"He's trying to get your watch for Voldemort!" Remus exclaimed, finally catching on.

"Exactly," Sirius said, who had been working it all out during class.

"But why is that watch so special?!" Peter demanded, clearly confused with what was going on.

"I don't know..." James admitted, "Brighid won't tell me, and my mom just says 'I'll tell you when you're older.'"

"Well, what do we do about Avery? I mean, if he's involved with Voldemort, he definitely shouldn't be teaching here!" Sirius said.

"Maybe... maybe for the moment we shouldn't tell anyone," Remus said, "At least until we get our facts straight. We can do some research and whatnot, but I really don't think that we should tell someone because we could be wrong." The others all agreed.

"Guys, we have to continue this conversation later, because right now we have Transfiguration," Sirius said, glancing at his watch.

The four boys left their dorm and headed towards their transfiguration class in silence, as they were all thinking about everything that was going on with Avery and the watch.

James walked into Transfiguration and sat down next to Lily, as she was his assigned partner. They both got out their books and wands and waited for Professor McGonnagal to come in and start the class.

"I hope McGonnagal isn't going to be as late as Avery was today," Lily said, looking around the classroom for the teacher.

"Yeah. I don't think she will be though. I mean come on, it's McGonnagal," James said. Lily laughed and agreed.

"Still though... wasn't that so weird what happened with Avery?" Lily said. James shrugged, wanting to end the subject as he didn't want to talk about it anymore. And he definitely didn't want to risk letting something slip.

"Yeah. Hey are we still working on transforming eagle feather quills into peacock feather quills in here?" James said. Lily frowned.

"Yes we are... why are you so quick to change the subject?" Lily asked suspiciously.

"I'm not!" James exclaimed.

"Right, and I supposed you're not being defensive either?" Lily said. James glared at her.

However, before James could actually respond McGonnagal walked in. Lily watched as James went up to the front of the room to get the quills they were working on. She vowed then and there to find out what James was up to. She only hoped it wasn't something serious.

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Well?? What do you guys think? Send your thoughts to me in a REVIEW!

Next chapter: More stuff with Remus and his problem and maybe some Avery stuff but I'm not really sure, it kind of depends. But anyway REVIEW and it'll be up soon!


	15. The Imperius

**Year 1: The Legend Unfolds**

**Chapter fifteen: The Imperius**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything that you recognize from the HP books.

**A/N:** WOW! Chapter 15! This is like... a milestone! I'm so proud. Hee hee. Anyway... sorry it took me kind of a while to update. My teachers are sadistic... and I've had a lot of crap to do. And sorry it's a bit shorter than they usually are... but I figured you guys would want a speedy update rather than a super long chapter... But at least I got a chapter up! And it's lucky chapter 15!! Okay so it's not really lucky... but it's sweet! So go on and read this, and REVIEW at the end!!

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Not long after the day when Avery came late to class, another full moon was coming. The boys were sitting in their dorm room, finishing up some homework. Well, all except for Remus, who was packing a suitcase to take to the hospital wing with him.

"I wish you didn't have to go, Remus," James said sympathetically.

"Believe me, so do I," he answered with a slight chuckle.

"Does it, er, hurt?" Sirius asked. Remus turned his head to Sirius and nodded.

"Yeah," he answered, grabbing a pair of socks from his trunk and throwing them in his suitcase.

"I wish there was something we could do!" James said.

"There's not. But I'll be fine. I've been doing it since I've been a little kid after all," Remus said, closing his suitcase with a snap.

"I'll see you all in a few days," Remus called as he headed out the door.

"Poor guy," James muttered, looking at the door that his friend had just headed out of.

"I know," Sirius said, also looking at the door.

"My uncle is a werewolf, too," Peter said, feeling a little left out of the conversation. Both Sirius and James turned to look at him.

"Do you guys do anything to help him get through it?" James asked, his mind still stuck on the idea of helping his friend.

"I-I don't think so," Peter stuttered.

James frowned, his eyes falling back on the Herbology essay he was currently working on. Once he finished it, he put his things away, changed into his pajamas, and went right to bed. However, he didn't fall asleep right away. He stayed up thinking about Remus and his condition. For some reason, he just couldn't get over it, and he felt that until he was able to help he wouldn't be able to sleep much during the full moons

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Brighid Potter sat in her defense classroom, half listening to her best friend Cathy babble on about some cute guy. She looked around the classroom nervously, waiting for the class to start, so that it would be over with sooner. Avery wasn't exactly late, as half of the students weren't even there yet, but she was still anxious. Something about Professor Avery just always made her nervous.

"Settle down, class," came Professor Avery's voice as he waltzed into the classroom, his robes billowing behind him. Although not many people were talking, those who were quickly quieted down and everyone turned to face the front of the classroom.

"Today, you will be learning about three very… special curses," he said, his lip curling menacingly. Brighid shifted in her seat uncomfortably, not really liking where this was going.

"The Unforgivables," Avery continued, and Brighid's eyes widened in shock. Was he going to teach them how to cast those? Surely that wasn't in the curriculum!

"Now, I am not going to teach you how to do them," Avery continued, answering Brighid's unasked question, "But I will be teaching you how to defend yourselves against them." Avery pulled out his wand and faced the class.

"Can anybody name one?" he said. A hand belonging to a quiet but smart boy sitting in the front row nervously raised itself.

"Yes, Gray," Avery barked.

"The Imperius, sir?" replied the boy, Anthony Gray.

"Exactly! The curse which forces the victim to do whatever the caster wants. This is the first curse that I will be teaching you to defend yourselves against. I will cast it on each of you in turn, and you will simply have to try not to obey the influence of the curse," he said, and a shocked silence fell over the classroom.

_There is no way that is allowed!_ Brighid though, shocked. She looked around the room, and saw that most of the other students were looking apprehensive as well.

"Professor?" Brighid said, raising her hand up cautiously. Avery's eyes snapped to her.

"Ah, wonderful, a volunteer!" Avery said, and Brighid shook her head.

"No, I just-" but Brighid was cut off.

"Come on now, get down here," Avery insisted, staring at her hard. Brighid sighed and slowly got to her feet. She stood in the front of the classroom, facing the class.

"Imperio," Avery said viciously from behind Brighid. She suddenly felt an odd feeling spread over her. She felt suddenly very happy, and she also had the strange feeling that she was flying.

_Come closer to me_. Suddenly a voice pierced through Brighid's mind. A cold, menacing voice. Brighid shrugged and walked over to where Professor Avery was. She knew that she was supposed to resist the curse, but she didn't really see a point in it.

_Now, give me the watch._ Brighid was shocked when she heard this demand in her mind. She should have seen that this was his plan from the beginning.

_Give me the Watch of Glory!_ The voice demanded, more urgent this time. Brighid shook her head.

_If you don't have it, then tell me where it is!_ Brighid opened her mouth to tell him that it resided with James, but she forced herself to shut it too.

_Tell me!_ But Brighid kept her mouth clamped tightly shut.

_Tell me now!_

"NO!" Brighid screamed this out loud, and suddenly she felt like she was crashing back to reality. The wonderful feeling of the spell was gone, but she sighed in relief, knowing that she had kept the watch hidden.

The other students in the class looked at her in shock. Her friend Cathy had eyes as big as saucers, and Brighid had a feeling that Cathy had figured out what Avery had wanted her to do. After all, Brighid had been keeping her informed on what was going on with Avery.

Avery had a look of anger on his face, but when he saw the students looking at them, he quickly masked his anger with a look of fake delight. He clapped his hands together is what he hoped was a pleasant way.

"Well! Look at that! Brighid managed to overthrow the curse! It's really quite an accomplishment to do that on her first try," Avery said, his teeth clamped together and a menacing look on his face. Brighid slowly edged back to her seat as Avery called up another student to perform the Imperius curse on.

The poor boy seemed to be the way that Avery dealt with his anger, as he made him do many interesting things, but Brighid wasn't really paying much attention. The main thought on her mind was warning James about what had happened. James was only eleven, and if Avery decided to perform the Imperius curse on him, it was unlikely that he would be able to fight it off.

"Brighid, come on!" Cathy yelled, and Brighid looked up only to see that everyone was packing up their bags to leave. Brighid quickly threw her things in her bag and rushed out the door with her friend, making sure that she wouldn't be the last one in the classroom with Avery.

"What did he ask you to do?" Cathy asked as they walked down to the Great Hall for dinner.

"At first he told me to give him the watch, but then he just told me to tell him where it was. But I didn't, thankfully," Brighid said. She and Cathy walked into the hall and located James sitting at the Gryffindor table chatting with Sirius and Peter. Brighid walked over to him and pulled him up by the collar of his shirt.

"James, I need to talk to you," Brighid said.

"Can you do it without holding onto my shirt?" James asked irritably. Brighid sighed and let go of his shirt.

"Fine, come on, let's go," Brighid said, shooting a quick glance towards the staff table and letting out a small sigh of relief when she saw that Avery wasn't at the table.

"I'm coming..." James muttered, waving to Sirius and Peter and heading out of the hall.

"I wonder what that was about..." Peter said, grabbing another roll out of the basket in front of him. Sirius gave him a look that clearly said "wow, you're dumb!"

"What do you think, Peter?" Sirius said. Peter furrowed his brow.

"Was it about Avery and the watch?" Peter asked, a little bit too loudly. Sirius quickly shushed him.

"Probably. But keep your voice down, will you!?" Sirius said.

"Sorry," Peter said, looking down at his hands in embarrassment.

"We are going to have to remember to tell Remus when he gets back from-" But Sirius cut him off.

"PETER! Is it completey impossible for you to think about things before you say them?" Sirius snapped at Peter again. Peter blushed.

"I wasn't gonna say anything bad..." Peter mumbled.

Sirius rolled his eyes and went back to his food, waiting for James to get back and fill them in. Neither Sirius nor Peter saw Lily sitting a few seats down, the wheels in her head turning as she tried to figure out what two secrets the boys were keeping that Sirius didn't want Peter to say.

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Detective Lily is on the job! What do you think is going to happen? REVIEW and tell me! I'll try to update a bit sooner next time!


	16. Lily the Eavesdropper

**Year 1: The Legend Begins**

**Chapter sixteen: Lily the Eavesdropper**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any characters that you recognize from the HP books. All of them reside in the mind of JK Rowling, and I am simply borrowing them to play with for a bit and return later with only a few scratches. So don't sue me!

**A/N: **Happy June 3rd! I don't really know what is so special about June 3rd… I guess I am just very excited that it's practically summer. Anyway… I'm really sorry that it took so long for me to update! But I've been very busy. Plus I've been sick… I've been suffering from a horrible case of Writer's-Block-itis! But I'm better now, so be happy!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! It really means a lot to me. I hope everyone likes this chapter. It is a bit longer than usual, and considering this entire chapter was written last night in bed on my laptop between the hours of 11:30 and 1 am, you better be thankful you are getting this! So yeah, anyway, read on, and don't forget to REVIEW at the end!

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It was the first day of February. The grounds were covered in thick white snow, and nearly everyone in Hogwarts was outside ice skating, or participating in a snowball fight. However, Lily Evans was not. Instead she was crouched behind a statue just outside the hospital wing, where she had followed James, Sirius and Peter. She was now waiting for them to come out, so she could continue following them around relentlessly. She had paid one of the cleverer 6th years to cast a disillusionment charm on her so they couldn't see her, and she had been following them around since just after breakfast. It was actually rather tiring.

So, why was Lily following around three fellow 1st years? Because her mind was set on finding out what they were up to, and following them around like a shadow was part of her carefully crafted plan. Something big had happened only a few days ago, and Lily was certain it was something they didn't anyone to know about.

Lily figured that since Remus had been gone, they would need to fill him in on what had happened. This is where following them came into play. Today was the day Remus was going to be coming back, so all Lily had to do was follow the boys until they met up with Remus, then wait for one of them to tell him whatever it was that had happened.

Lily heard a door open, and looked up to see James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter leaving the hospital wing. Wait, where had Remus come from? He hadn't gone in with them. Lily shrugged it off however, figuring that he had simply gotten sick on the way home and went there to get a potion.

Soon the boys had started moving, and Lily crept after them. She was close enough to them that she could hear what they were saying, but she was far enough away that she couldn't be heard. Even in the wizarding world, hearing something that wasn't really there was not normal.

"So, how are you feeling mate?" James asked Remus, confirming Lily's suspicions that he had simply gotten sick.

"Eh, fine," Remus said, in a voice that clearly told anyone who could hear that he was not fine.

"Well, you'll feel better soon," James assured him. Remus shrugged.

"Do you guys want to go out and play in the snow?" Peter asked as they continued to walk down a hallway with no real purpose.

"Nah… it'd be too cold, none of us have cloaks." Sirius said.

"Oh yeah…" Peter said. Lily rolled her eyes. She didn't really like Peter much.

"Besides… we have to go back up to the dorm and fill Remus in on some… things…" James said, looking at the rest of the boys pointedly.

"Oh yeah!" Sirius said.

"What happened?!" Remus asked, alarmed. Lily moved a little closer, as they all quieted their voices in the way that people do when they don't want to be overheard.

"Shh, not here," James said, looking around the hallway to make sure that no one was there. Little did he know, someone was. Lily was very thankful at that moment that she had read about the disillusionment charm and thought to have it cast.

"Yeah, we'll tell you when we get back up to the dorms," Sirius insisted. Remus nodded, as if he understood why they didn't want to talk about it in the hallways. Lily's heart began to beat faster. She was so close to getting what she was looking for.

After about 5 minutes of silent walking through the hallways, they finally reached Gryffindor tower. Peter said the password, and the four boys followed by Lily entered the common room. It was filled with the students who didn't want to brave the cold outdoors, and Lily had to be very careful not to bump into someone, lest her cover be blown.

She followed the boys over to the boys' staircase and walked up it behind them. They reached their dorm, and walked in. Lily quickly slipped in the door before Sirius, the last one in, had a chance to close it. She decided it would be best to hide somewhere, as one was not completely invisible with the disillusionment charm. Also, the charm was going to wear off at 3 pm, and it was 2 now. She didn't know how long this was going to take. She carefully crawled under one of the beds, careful not to make the bed skirt fly up too much.

"So what happened?" Remus demanded, "I assume it has something to do with Avery." Lily frowned at this. Avery meaning Professor Avery? What did he have to do with anything?

"Of course," she heard James's voice answer. She kind of wished that she had chosen a hiding place where she could have seen them, but it was too late.

"Did he try to steal it from you again?" Remus asked. _Steal what?!_

"Not exactly. It has more to do with Brighid. You know what the Imperius curse is, right?" Sirius said. Lily was shocked to hear this. She had done a lot of reading in the time she had been at Hogwarts, and she was perfectly familiar with the Imperius curse.

"Yeah, what about it?" Remus asked. Lily could tell from his tone of voice that he was almost afraid to know.

"Well, in class a couple of days ago, he said he was going to teach Brighid's class how to defend themselves against the Imperius curse. But he really only used this as an excuse to cast the Imperius on Brighid and demand her to tell him where the watch is," James said. Lily was shocked to hear the word 'watch' come out of James's mouth. She knew that James had a very valuable watch that his father had given him. Was Avery trying to steal it?

"She didn't tell him, did she? You still have it right?" Remus demanded.

"No, she didn't tell him," Peter said.

"Well that's good. But this is all very bad!" Remus said. He sounded like his head was spinning, and Lily was as well. Never in a million years would she have guessed that Avery was trying to steal James's watch, and yet here she was, listening to the conversation.

"I know. I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep the watch with me," James said. Lily heard a clinking sound, and she figured that James had just pulled the watch out from where he was hiding it.

"You have to mate," Peter said.

"But what if Avery decides to cast the Imperius on me? I'm not nearly as strong or experienced as Brighid is! I would give it to him in a second." James said.

"No you wouldn't mate. But you need to keep the watch. Brighid gave it back to you for a reason; you are the one who is supposed to have it. It is yours after all," Sirius insisted.

"I guess," James sighed, and Lily heard him put the watch away again.

"Hey, I think we need to take our minds off of all this," Remus said, after a few moments of silence, "I say we go outside and play in the snow. We need to show Hogwarts just what the four of us can do in a snowball fight." James laughed.

"I agree. Let's get out there!" he said, and Lily heard the boys each get their cloaks. She waited, and soon she also heard the opening and closing of the door. Lily waited for a bit to make sure that nobody was going to come back up, and she crawled out from under the bed.

Lily's head was spinning, and she didn't know what she should do about the knowledge she just got. After a bit of careful consideration, she figured she should go talk to Brighid. Obviously she already knew what was going on, after all, the watch had almost been stolen from her, but Lily figured there would be no harm in doing it.

She looked at a clock, and saw that it was after three, meaning the charm had already worn off. She headed out the door and walked down the stairs. Luckily, the common room was full enough that nobody noticed her coming down from the boys' dorms. The next order of business was to find Brighid. Lily headed out the portrait hole, still partially in shock at what she had just discovered.

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After searching for about ten minutes, Lily found Brighid sitting alone in the library at a table near the back. Lily smiled to herself, happy that she wouldn't have to pull Brighid away from friends or anything like that. As she approached the table, Brighid looked up from her books to see Lily standing there.

"Hey, Lily. How's it going?" Brighid asked as Lily took a seat in a chair next to her.

"Um… good…" Lily said distractedly, in a way that clearly told Brighid that she was not good.

"Lily, what is wrong?" Brighid asked, closing the book she had been studying and looking at her makeshift little sister with concern.

"I know about the watch! And Avery!" Lily blurted out quietly. Brighid's eyes widened with shock.

"What? How…?" Brighid started to say, but she trailed off.

"I overheard James and his friends talking about it," Lily responded.

"How much do you know about the watch then?" Brighid asked. She knew that Lily couldn't know much about the watch, as James didn't even know yet why it was so valuable.

"Well, I knew a little about the watch before coming here. James used to brag about it sometimes when we were in grade school together," Lily said, "All I learned today was about Avery trying to steal it."

"Lily, listen to me, you can't tell anyone about what you learned today," Brighid said, looking at her harshly.

"What? Why not? Shouldn't we tell Dumbledore? Or…" Lily said, but Brighid cut her off.

"No, we shouldn't. Just trust me on this one, okay? Please don't tell anyone, even your friends. It really isn't your business after all, Ms. Eavesdrop," Brighid said, looking at her pointedly.

"I guess you are right…" Lily sighed.

"I am. Trust me it will be taken care of," Brighid assured her. Lily shrugged.

"All right then. I'm going to go now, see you later," Lily said, getting up from the table.

"See you later, Lily," Brighid said, looking after the redhead as she walked away.

Lily left the library, but she didn't really know where she wanted to go next. Instead, she simply wandered the halls, thinking about all that she had learned today. She was a little worried, and she was definitely scared of Avery now, but Brighid said it was being taken care of, and Lily just had to trust her on that.

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So Lily knows about the watch now, and Avery's plans to steal it. Is this good news? Bad news? You tell me! Drop a review please! I shall be forever grateful, and I will also give you a cookie! So REVIEW! And I'll try to update a bit quicker next time, since school is out in 12 days for me. Yay!

REVIEW!


	17. Lily's Sneaky Research

**Year 1: The Legend Begins**

**Chapter Seventeen: Lily's Sneaky Research**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything that you guys recognize, all that good stuff belongs to JK Rowling. It's a hard life, isn't it?

**A/N: **So, I'm thinking you guys are going to be happy with this chapter! YOU LEARN WHAT THE WATCH IS! YAY! The characters don't really know as much as you guys are going to know, but that's okay haha. You guys are going to know for sure now! Horray! Celebrate! So yeah, I hope you like this chapter! It's dedicated to **opungo**, who was my only reviewer last chapter... what is up with that guys?! Leave me a review please, once you finished reading this! PLEASE!? Thanks!

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Lily idly flipped through the pages of _Important Lost Treasures of the New Wizarding Age_, her eyes glassed over slightly. She was supposed to be doing research for a Defense Against the Dark Arts essay, but she couldn't really concentrate. Her mind was wandering, and at the moment she could not think of anything that she would want to do less than write this essay. She sighed and flipped another page and she saw something that made her eyes fly open in shock.

Right in the middle of page 435 was a huge picture of a watch that looked suspiciously like James's. It was very watch that, as she had found out only a week ago, was in danger of being stolen by Professor Avery. Lily had to do a double take to make sure the stress was not getting to her. She read the title on the page and her shock began to grow.

**The Watch of Glory**

**Relic of Godric Gryffindor**

Intrigued, Lily continued reading.

_The Watch of Glory, or Watch of Mystery, once belonged to Hogwarts Founder Godric Gryffindor. Like other artifacts from the days of the founders, the Watch of Glory has astonishingly strong power for those who know how to unleash it. However, whether as a result of this power or not, the watch has been missing for many centuries. There have been a few leads throughout the years as to where it might reside, but all of them have been proved false. The origin of the watch…_

But Lily stopped there, seeing no reason to read the rest of the article. She had gotten all of the information she needed in that one little passage. After carefully marking the page, Lily picked up the book and hurried out of the library to find James.

She found him sitting in the common room, chatting casually with his friends. Luckily they were off to the side of the common room, so there wasn't much of a risk of being overheard. As Lily approached them they all looked up at her, abruptly stopping their conversation.

"What do you want, Evans?" James sneered at her, and she considered going back to the library without tell them what she knew, but she thought better of it.

"I have something to show you guys, mostly you Potter. It's about that watch Avery is trying to steal," Lily responded. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, however, Lily regretted saying it. Their gaping faces reminded her that they were not aware she even knew what the watch was.

"How do you…?" James asked as she sat down with them and plopped the book down on the table.

"Never mind that, this is extremely important," Lily said, not eager to tell them that she had actually found out by eavesdropping. She opened the book to the right page, and pushed it in front of James.

"Read that first passage there," Lily instructed, and they all leaned forward to read. When they finished, all four boys wore identical wide-eyed expressions.

"Woah!" Sirius said as the boys all sat back.

"I know! Avery has been wrong all along! He obviously wants this watch here, but he must have mistaken your watch for this one," Lily said. However, James frowned.

"I think that is my watch," he said. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Don't be thick. Do you really think an 11 year old boy would be in possession of Godric Gryffindor's heirloom? Besides, it says this one has been missing for ages…"

"But they look exactly alike," James insisted.

"You don't know that. All you can see from the picture is the front of the watch. You never know how different they could be inside. The numbers on the clock might be different. Or there might be something different on the back. I seriously doubt they are the same," Lily said.

"Maybe you're right. But what do I do about it?" James asked.

"Tell Avery he's mistaken if you want him to leave you alone," Remus volunteered. James snorted.

"Oh yeah, that's going to go over really well. 'Hi Professor! Just so you know, you're really quite thick, as you've been trying to steal the wrong watch from me all year,'" James said in a mocking voice.

"I think Remus is right, Potter. How is he going to know unless you tell him?" Lily said.

"I'm not going to do that, it's totally ridiculous. Besides, we don't know that he's wrong. We could be wrong for all anybody knows," James said.

"You're being totally irrational! How in the world could you _actually _have the real thing?"

"Don't call me irrational! How do you know I don't?"

"Because it's been missing for centuries!"

"Maybe that's just because nobody knows I have it!"

"GUYS!" came a sudden yell, breaking Lily and James's argument up. They both turned to look at Remus.

"Stop arguing, that is all you guys ever do! Lily, thank you for showing us this, we'll go to Brighid and ask her what to do from here," Remus said with a tone of finality in his voice. Lily sent one last glare at James before grabbing her bag and stalking up the stairs to her dormitory.

"Thanks, pal, I thought she would never leave!" James said, grinning.

"James, you know as well as I do that Lily is most likely right," Remus said, sending James a meaningful look.

"Well, duh," James responded in a bored tone, "It's just really fun to tick her off. You should try it some time." Remus smiled wryly.

"No thanks," he said.

"So, what are we going to do again?" Sirius asked, as though he was just starting to pay attention to the conversation.

"We never really decided. But I think we were going to ask Brighid if she knows anything about it," Remus said.

"No," James said suddenly, causing the others to swing their heads around to look at him.

"What? Why?" Remus asked.

"Because… Brighid is the kind of person who would seriously overreact if she saw something like this. She would find a way to convince herself that we had the real one, and then she would go crazy. That's just way too much fuss to make over this thing," James said. Sirius looked at him skeptically.

"Then what do you suppose you are going to do?" he asked. James thought for a moment.

"Maybe if Avery could get another look at the watch, he would realize that it's not the one he is looking for," James said.

"Bad idea," Remus immediately warned, "Avery has shown us that he really wants that watch, and getting it anywhere near close enough to him for him to get a good look is not a good idea."

"What are you guys doing?" said a sudden voice behind them. They all turned around to see Brighid peering down at the book that still lay open on the table.

"Oh, hi, nothing…" James tried to say, but Brighid cut him off.

"What is that?" She asked sharply, pointing to the book.

"Um…" James tried desperately to think of an excuse, but nothing came to him.

"Where did you get that?" she demanded before he could spit a sentence out.

"Lily showed it to us…" James said, getting a little frightened by the urgency in her tone and the anger on her face. Brighid frowned at them and walked around to the table. She picked up the book and snapped it shut.

"Chill out, Brighid! I don't actually have that watch, mine just looks like that. Avery just confused the two!" James said, eager to make Brighid understand that there was nothing to freak out about. She looked at him for a second in confusion before a look of understanding crossed her face.

"Right. It's not the same one. So just, uh, keep yours safe, alright?" Brighid said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," James said.

"Good. Now, I have, um, things to do now. So I'll see you later," Brighid said, hurrying from the room with the library book still clutched in her hands. The boys looked after her in confusion.

"What on Earth?" Sirius asked.

"Who knows, she's weird," James said, grinning. The other boys laughed.

Meanwhile, Brighid was hurrying along the Hogwarts hallways with _Important Lost Treasures of the New Wizarding Age_. She needed to get a closer look at that section on the Watch of Glory.

Even though Brighid knew a lot about the watch, she never realized it had been Gryffindor's at one time. Luckily James was thick, and didn't realize that he actually had the original watch. Brighid didn't know what significance it held, but if neither Brighid or James knew the truth about the watch's origins, there must be a reason.

As Brighid walked into the library, she sat at a table and opened the book again. She looked at the picture of the watch for a moment before sighing and reading what was written about it. She would confront her mother later, ask her questions. In the meantime, she wanted to know all she could about the watch. After all, it never hurt to be informed.

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So… the watch used to belong to Gryffindor… but why would Voldemort want it? He hasn't shown any interest in heirlooms of other founders… or wait, has he…

Now do you all see where I'm going with this?

So, anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. Don't forget to review, and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can!


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